EDWIN C. DINWIDDIE 

Subject 



Section 
Shelf 

No. 




Glass. 
Book. 



THE EDWIN C. DINWIDDIE 

COLLECTION OF BOOKS ON 

TEMPERANCE AND ALLIED SUBJECTS 

(PRESENTED BY MRS. DINWIDDIE) 



Cbe liquor JJroblem. 



THE LIQUOR PROBLEM IN ITS LEGISLATIVE AS- 
PECTS. By Frederic H. Wines and John Koren. 
An Investigation made under the Direction of Charles 
W. Eliot, Seth Low, and James C. Carter, Sub- 
Committee of the Committee of Fifty to Investigate the 
Liquor Problem. With Maps. i2mo,,$i.25. 

ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE LIQUOR PROBLEM. 
By John Korkn. An Investigation made under the 
Direction of Professors W. O. Atwater, Henry W. Far- 
nam, J. F.. Jones, Doctors Z. R. Brockway, John 
Graham Brooks, E. R. L. Gould, and Hon. Carroll D. 
Wright, a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Fifty. 
With an Introduction by Prof. Henry W. Farnam. 
i2mo, $1.50. 

SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. By Raymond 
Calkins. An Investigation made for the Committee 
of Fifty under the direction of Elgin R. S. Gould, 
Francis G. Peabody, and William M. Sloane, Sub- 
Committee. i2mo, {1.30, net. (Postage 13 cents.) 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE LIQUOR 
PROBLEM. Edited by John S. Billings, M.D. An 
Investigation made for the Committee of Fifty under 
the direction of John S. Billings, W. O. Atwater, H. P. 
Bowditch, R. H. Chittenden, and W. H. Welch, Sub- 
Committee. 2 vols. 8vo, $4.50, net. (Postage 36 cents.) 

THE LIQUOR PROBLEM. A summary of investiga- 
tions conducted by the Committee of Fifty, 1893-1903. 
By John S. Billings, Charles W. Eliot, Henry W. Far- 
num, Jacob L. Greene, Raymond Calkins, and Francis 
G. Peabody, Sub-committee, iimo, $1.00, net. (Post- 
age 9 cents.) 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

Boston and New York 



THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

A SUMMARY OF INVESTIGATIONS 

CONDUCTED BY 

THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTY 



THE 

LIQUOR PROBLEM 

A SUMMARY OF INVESTIGATIONS 

CONDUCTED BY 

THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTY 
1893-1903 

PREPARED FOR THE COMMITTEE BY 

JOHN S. BILLINGS, CHARLES W. ELIOT, 

HENRY W. FARNAM, JACOB L. GREENE, 

AND FRANCIS G. PEABODY 



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M 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 



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^.M 



COPYRIGHT 1905 BY FRANCIS G. PEABODY 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Published September iqo^ 



Gift 

MRS. Edwin C. Dinwiddfe 
Aug. 6, 1935 



CONTENTS 



Pi.OB 

I. Introduction. By Francis G. Peabody . . 1 
II. A Summary of Investigations concerning 

THE Physiological Aspects of the Liquor 

Problem. By John S. Billings .... 15 
III. A Summary of Investigations concerning 

the Legislative Aspects. By Charles W. 

Eliot 43 

rV. A Summary of Investigations concerning 

the Economic Aspects. By Henry W. 

Farnam 79 

V. A Summary of Investigations concerning 

THE Ethical Aspects. By Jacob L. Greene 135 
VI. A Summary of Investigations concerning 

Substitutes for the Saloon. By Raymond 

Caleins 143 



PKESENT ORGANIZATION OF THE 
COMMITTEE OF FIFTY 

May, 1905 



OFFICERS 



President. 
Hon. Seth Low, LL. D., New York, N. Y. 
Vice-President. 
♦Charles Dudley Warner, Esq., Hartford, Conn. 

Secretary. 
Prof. Francis G. Peabody, D. D., Cambridge, Mass. 

Treasurer, 

«Wm. E. Dodge, Esq., 99 John St., New York, N. Y. 

Executive Board. 

THE above named OFFICERS AND: 

Dr. J. S. Billings, Astor Library, 40 Lafayette Place, New 

York, N. Y. 
President Charles W. Eliot, LL. D,, Harvard University, 

Cambridge, Mass. 
*Col. Jacob L. Greene, Hartford, Conn. 
Hon. Carroll D. Wright, A. M., LL. D., Clark College, 

Worcester, Mass. 

Members. 
Prof. Felix Adler, 123 East 60th St., New York, N. Y. 
Bishop Edw. G. Andrews, D. D., Methodist Building, 150 

Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. 
Prof. W. O. Atwater, Wesleyan University, Middletown, 

Conn. 



viii THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTY 

Dr. J. S. Billings, Astor Library, 40 Lafayette Place, New 

York, N. Y. 
Charles J. Bonaparte, Esq., 216 St. Paul St., Baltimore, 

Md. 
Prof. H. P. Bowditch, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 

Mass. 
Rev. Prof. Charles A. Briggs, D. D., 700 Park Ave., New 

York, N. Y. 
Z. R. Brockway, Esq., State Reformatory, Elmira, N. Y. 
John Graham Brooks, Esq., Francis Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 
*Hon. James C. Carter, 54 Wall St., New York, N. Y. 
Prof. R. H. Chittenden, Sheffield Scientific School, New 

Haven, Conn. 
Right Rev. Thomas Conaty, D. D., 114 East 2d St., Los 

Angeles, Cal. 
John H. Converse, Esq., Baldwin Locomotive Works, Phila- 
delphia, Penn. 
Wm. Bayard Cutting, Esq., 34 Nassau St., New York, N. Y. 
Rev. S. W. Dike, LL. D., Auburndale, Mass. 
*Wm. E. Dodge, Esq., 99 John St., New York, N. Y. 
Rev. Father A. P. Doyle, Paulist Fathers, 455 West 59th 

St., New York, N. Y. 
President Charles W. Eliot, LL. D., Harvard University, 

Cambridge, Mass. 
Rev. Father Walter Elliot, Paulist Fathers, 455 West 59th 

St., New York, N. Y. 
Prof. Richard T. Ely, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 

Wis. f 

Prof. Henry W. Farnam, 43 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven, 

Conn. 
Rt. Rev. T. F. Gailor, D. D., University of the South, Se- 

wanee, Tenn. 
Daniel C. Gilman, LL. D., Baltimore, Md. 
Rev. Washington Gladden, D. D., LL. D., Columbus, Ohio. 
Richard W. Gilder, Esq., Union Square, New York, N. Y. 
Dr. E. R. L. Gould, 281 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y. 



THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTY ix 

♦Col. Jacob L. Greene, LL. D., Hartford, Conn. 

Dr. Edward M. Hartwell, 5 Brimmer St., Boston, Mass. 

Rev. W. R. Huntington, D. D., Grace Church, 804 Broad- 
way, New York, N. Y. 

♦President Wm. Preston Johnston, LL. D., Tulane Uni- 
versity, New Orleans, La. 

Prof. J. F. Jones, Marietta, Ohio. 

Hon. Seth Low, LL. D., New York, N. Y. 

President James MacAlister, LL. D., Drexel Institute, 
Philadelphia, Penn. 

Rt. Rev. Alexander Mackay-Smith, D. D., Philadelphia, 
Penn. 

Prof. J. J. McCook, Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. 

Rev. T. T. Munger, D. D., New Haven, Conn. 

Robert C. Ogden, Esq., 784 Broadway, New York, N. Y. 

Rev. Prof. Francis G. Peabody, D. D., Cambridge, Mass. 

Rt. Rev. H. C. Potter, D. D., 29 Lafayette Place, New 
York, N. Y. 

Rev. W. I. Rainsford, D. D., 209 East 16th St., New York, 
N.Y. 

Jacob H. Schiff, Esq., 27 Pine St., New York, N. Y. 

*Rev. Prof. C. W. Shields, D. D., Princeton, N. J. 

Prof. W. M. Sloane, Columbia University, New York, N. Y. 

♦Charles Dudley Warner, Esq., Hartford, Conn. 

Dr. Wm. H. Welch, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, 
Md. 

Frederick H. Wines, LL. D., Springfield, 111. 

Hon. Carroll D. Wright, A. M., LL. D., Clark College, 
Worcester, Mass. 



I 

INTRODUCTION 
By FRANCIS G. PEABODY 

8BGBETABT OF THB COMMITIEB OF FITTT 



INTRODUCTION 

The Committee of Fifty for the investiga- 
tion of the Liquor Problem was organized in 
1893. Among its earliest votes was the fol- 
lowing Declaration of Intention : " This 
Committee, made up of persons representing 
different trades, occupations, and opinions, is 
engaged in the study of the Liquor Problem, 
in the hope of securing a body of facts which 
may serve as a basis for intelligent public 
and private action. It is the purpose of the 
Committee to collect and collate impartially, 
all accessible facts which bear upon the prob- 
lem, and it is their hope to secure for the 
evidence thus accumulated a measure of con- 
fidence on the part of the community which 
is not accorded to personal statements.'* The 
Committee of Fifty was therefore not organ- 
ized to create one more agent in practical 
reform, but in the belief that a consensus of 
competent opinion, in which physiologists 
and economists, men of academic life, men 
of affairs, and members of most diverse re- 



4 INTRODUCTION 

gious communions, could unite, would pro- 
vide a starting-point for a rational and trust- 
worthy method of action. " It was from the 
first understood/' wrote the Vice-President of 
the Committee, Mr. Charles Dudley Warner 
(Harper's Magazine, February, 1897), " that 
the prime business of the Committee was not 
the expression of opinion or the advancing 
or advocacy of one theory or another, but 
strictly the investigation of facts, without 
reference to the conclusions to which they 
might lead." 

On October 20, 1893, the Conmiittee of 
Fifty appointed four sub-committees to con- 
sider respectively the physiological, legisla- 
tive, economic, and ethical aspects of the 
Drink-Question. Each of these sub-com- 
mittees undertook a series of independent 
investigations, which issued in a series of 
reports concerning some aspects of the prob- 
lem submitted for consideration. To each 
of these publications has been prefixed the 
following note ; ^^ By vote of the Committee 
of Fifty, January 10, 1896, reports made by 
its sub-committees to the whole body may be 
published by the Executive Committee as 
contributions to the general inquiry ; but to 



INTRODUCTION 5 

all such publications is to be prefixed the 
statement that reports of sub-committees are 
to be regarded as preliminary in their nature 
and only contributory of facts upon which 
the general discussion may in future be 
undertaken by the Committee as a whole/' 
These volumes therefore express the judg- 
ment of the sub-committees only, whose 
names they bear; though it is believed by 
the Committee of Fifty that the composi- 
tion of its sub-committees, and the character 
of the researches directed by them, give 
reasonable assurance of fidelity in the pre- 
sentation and estimate of the evidence ex- 
amined. The voliunes thus issued have been 
published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Bos- 
ton, as follows : (1) The Physiological As- 
pects of the Liquor Problem, 2 vols., 8vo, 
$4.50 net, 1903 ; (2) The Liquor Problem 
in its Legislative Aspects, 12mo, $1.25, 
1897 ; (3) Economic Aspects of the Liquor 
Problem, 12mo, $1.50, 1899; (4) Substi- 
tutes for the Saloon, 12mo, $1.50, 1901. 

With the publication of these volumes, the 
programme proposed for itself by the Com- 
mittee of Fifty was in the main fulfilled. 
During the twelve years of its organization, 



6 INTRODUCTION 

the Committee has met in general session 
seventeen times. Each member has paid his 
own expenses ; and the laborious and ex- 
pensive investigations of the sub-committees 
have been paid either by members of those 
committees or by subscriptions privately se- 
cured. The Physiological Sub-committee has 
expended $7,100; the Legislative Sub-com- 
mittee, $6,945; the Economic Sub-committee, 
$4,550; and the Committee on Substitutes 
for the Saloon, $404.36. The total disburse- 
ment for the work of the Committee of Fifty, 
apart from the personal expenses of the mem- 
bers, has been approximately $21,529.35. 

In the course of these investigations, how- 
ever, it has frequently been suggested to the 
Committee of Fifty that a brief Summary of 
the conclusions reached by the various sub- 
committees might be of interest to readers 
who were not likely to examine the more 
elaborate and technical volumes. Serious stu- 
dents of the Liquor Problem might be ex- 
pected to analyze with care the mass of facts 
collected, but many readers, it was urged, 
would be satisfied if they might obtain, in 
some abbreviated form, an indication of those 
results of inquiry which seem to have im- 



INTRODUCTION 7 

mediate bearing on the practical conduct of 
life. Accordingly, on February 10, 1904, 
it was voted : " That the Chairmen of the 
four committees responsible for the volumes 
thus far issued be instructed, in cooperation 
with their colleagues, to prepare Summaries 
of their researches, adapted so far as possible 
to popular reading, and that these Chairmen, 
with the Secretary of the Committee of Fifty, 
be a committee to incorporate these Summa- 
ries in a volume of moderate size, which shall 
express the general conclusions of the work 
of the Committee of Fifty and shall be sub- 
mitted to the Committee for its approval at a 
later meeting." 

The following pages contain the Summa- 
ries thus authorized and approved. It is neces- 
sary, however, to call attention once more to 
the limited scope and intention of the entire 
series of investigations. The volumes do not 
enter the region of exhortation and argument, 
but restrict themselves to the statement of 
what appear to be demonstrable facts and to 
the inferences which these facts appear to dic- 
tate. On no other terms could the Committee 
of Fifty have been organized or maintained. 
Its members represented many different atti- 



8 INTRODUCTION 

tudes of mind toward practical methods of 
temperance reform ; — total abstinence and 
moderation, legal prohibition and the licens- 
ing system. The problem before such a com- 
mittee was that of formulating the facts on 
which thoughtful students of various tradi- 
tions and tendencies might agree. The series 
of special investigations are not missionary 
tracts or moral appeals, but scientific studies 
of physical and social facts. 

This limitation of purpose, however, far 
from indicating indiJfference to practical re- 
form, may on the contrary suggest new ways 
of applying the spirit of reform. If, in the con- 
fusion of opinion which prevails concerning 
the drink-problem, a body of facts can be col- 
lected which in any degree represents the truth 
as it is now understood by students of physical 
and social life, then — while such facts are 
not likely to satisfy all who are already com- 
mitted to special methods of reform — they 
may provide a foundation for more rational 
and comprehensive measures. The cause of 
temperance has been much obstructed by 
intemperate speech and exaggerated state- 
ment, and has suffered much through dis- 
sensions among those who should have been 



INTRODUCTION 9 

allies. There is much to fear from excess of 
drink, but there is also much to fear from 
excessive statements which experience soon 
discovers to be unsupported by facts. An 
investigation, therefore, which disclaims di- 
dactic intention may not be without didactic 
results. To affirm, for instance, as is done 
by the report of the physiological Sub-com- 
mittee, that the limit of judicious use of 
alcohol as a beverage is : (a) A single glass 
of wine per day; (b) For persons of middle 
age or over ; (c) As a sedative, at the end of 
the day ; may appear to those accustomed to 
inflammatory appeals a diluted form of tem- 
perance argument, but to other minds it may 
appear a more convincing and commanding 
statement than to teach that a single glass 
of beer is a step to a drunkard's grave. To 
point out, as is done by the Legislative Sub- 
committee, that " it cannot be positively af- 
firmed that any kind of liquor legislation has 
been more successful than another in pro- 
moting real temperance," may be to minds 
trained to regard a single form of legislation 
as redemptive a somewhat impotent conclu- 
sion ; but this apparently negative conclusion 
will to other minds open the way to a more 



10 INTRODUCTION 

tolerant and judicious application of law as a 
means rather than an end, and will suggest 
a cautious opportunism which adapts methods 
of law to variations in local condition, racial 
tendency, and density of population. 

Indeed, it is not impossible that a mere 
statement of the facts concerning the drink- 
habit, as that social peril presents itself to a 
considerable number of reasonably impartial 
observers, may of itself carry to some minds 
the force of a new argument for temperance. 
Differences of opinion concerning methods of 
reform should not obscure the practical agree- 
ment of all thoughtful students of society 
concerning the menace to modern civilization 
through the abuse of alcoholic drinks. The 
truth on the subject is so grave and porten- 
tous that it needs no exhortation to carry 
an appeal to the conscience and the will. 
According to the Economic Sub-committee, 
twenty-five per cent, of the poverty of the 
United States may be traced directly or indi- 
rectly to liquor; nearly fifty per cent, of 
crime is referred to intemperance as one 
cause, and in thirty-one per cent, it appears 
as a first cause. Facts so prodigious as these 
should silence the sectarian controversies 



INTRODUCTION 11 

which divide the advocates of temperance, 
and should summon all intelligent citizens 
to the realization of a common peril and a 
common responsibility. The purpose of the 
Committee of Fifty will be accomplished if 
the facts which they have collected and set 
forth may contribute in any degree to a 
more rational and comprehensive union of 
the forces in American life which make for 
sobriety, self-control, good citizenship, and 
social responsibility. 

For the convenience of readers who may wish to pro- 
ceed from the present Summary to any of the preceding 
volumes issued by the Committee of Fifty, the contents 
of the series may be briefly indicated : — 

1. The Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Problem ; 
2 volumes, 773 pages, 1903 : Investigations made by 
and under the direction of W. O. Atwater, John S. 
Billings, H. P. Bowditch, E. H. Chittenden, and W. 
H. Welch. These volumes contain : — 

i. An investigation on the influence of alcohol and 
alcoholic drinks upon the processes of digestion, by 
Professor R. H. Chittenden. 

ii. A further study of the influence of alcohol and 
alcoholic drinks upon digestion with special reference 
to secretion, by Professor R. H. Chittenden, Dr. L. M. 
Mendel, and Dr. H. C Jackson. 

iii. An investigation on the effects of long-continued 
doses of alcohol or alcoholic liquors in producing organic 
changes in certain tissues and organs of the body, made 



12 INTRODUCTION 

by Professor William H. Welch and Dr. J. Frieden- 
wald. 

iv. An investigation as to the effects of alcohol and 
alcoholic drinks on the growth, development, and repro- 
ductive powers of animals, by Professor C. F. Hodge 
of Clark University. 

V. An investigation on the influence of alcoholism 
on infection and immunity, by Professor A. C. Abbott 
of the University of Pennsylvania. 

vi. An investigation of the extent to which alcohol 
is consumed in the living human body, and its action 
as a force producer and a food, by Professors W. O. 
Atwater and F. G. Benedict of Wesleyan University. 

vii. An investigation on the relations between the 
use of alcoholic drinks and insanity, made by the 
American Medico-Psychological Association. 

viii. A statistical investigation as to the relative pre- 
valence of the use of alcoholic drinks among brain- 
workers in the United States, by Dr. J. S. Billings. 

ix. An investigation of the opinions and teachings 
of leading physiologists and pathologists of the present 
day, with regard to the effects of alcoholic drinks, and 
a comparison of these with the teachings of text-books 
in use in the common schools of this country, by Pro- 
fessors H. P. Bowditch of Harvard, and C. F. Hodge 
of Clark University. 

2. The Liquor Problem in its Legislative Aspects, 
second edition, 1900 : An investigation made under the 
direction of Charles W. Eliot, Seth Low, and James 
C. Carter. 

i. A study of Legislation in Maine (prohibition), Mas- 
sachusetts (local option), Pennsylvania (high license), 
South Carolina (State dispensaries), by John Keren. 



INTRODUCTION 13 

ii. A study of Legislation in Missouri (local option), 
Iowa (prohibition), Ohio (State tax), and Indiana 
(license), by Frederick H. Wines. 

3. Economic Aspects of the Liquor Problem, 1899 : 
An investigation made under the direction of Henry 
W. Farnam, by John Koren, with the cooperation of 
the representatives of thirty-three charity organization 
societies, eleven children's aid societies, sixty alms- 
houses, and seventeen prisons and reformatories. 

i. The Liquor Problem in its relation to poverty and 
pauperism. 

ii. The Liquor Problem in its relation to the desti- 
tution and neglect of children. 

iii. The Liquor Problem in its relation to crime. 

iv. The relations to the Liquor Problem of the 
negroes and the North American Indians. 

V. Social Aspects of the Saloon in large cities. 

4. Substitutes for the Saloon. An investigation made 
under the direction of Francis G. Peabody, Elgin R. L. 
Gould, and William M. Sloane, by Raymond Calkins, 
with the cooperation of many teachers, students, settle- 
ment workers, and other investigators. 

A study of men's clubs, boys' clubs, churches, mis- 
sions, coffee-houses, amusements, and other substitutes 
for the saloon. 

The cities selected for study were : — 

San Francisco, Denver, St. Louis, Minneapolis, St. 
Paul, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, New 
Haven, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 
Atlanta, New Orleans, and Memphis. 

Rev. Mr. Calkins, the editor of this volume, has also 
prepared for the present volume the Summary of the 
same subject. 



n 

A SUMMARY OF INVESTIGATIONS 
CONCERNING THE PHYSIOLOGICAL 
ASPECTS OF THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

By JOHN S. BILLINGS, Chairman 

WITH THE COOPERATION OF THE SUB-COMMITTEB 



A SUMMARY OF INVESTIGATIONS CON- 
CERNING THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AS- 
PECTS OF THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

There are many kinds of alcoholic drinks 
in use in different parts of the world, but the 
characteristic ingredient of all of them is 
ethyl alcohol, produced by the fermentation 
of starch or sugar. They are commonly di- 
vided into three classes: (1) wines; (2) malt 
liquors ; (3) distilled liquors; to which may be 
added, (4) root beer and like beverages con- 
taining small quantities of alcohol, (5) kou- 
miss and other preparations made from milk 
by the fermentation of milk sugar, (6) alco- 
holic preparations, "tonics," "nerve stimu- 
lants," " aids to digestion," etc., sold under 
such names as bitters, celery compound, malt 
extract, and the like. 

The following table shows the proportion, 
by weight, of ethyl alcohol in the alcoholic 
drinks most used in the United States : — 



18 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

Per cent, of Alcohol. 

Average. Range. 

French clarets ........ 8.- 6-12 

French white wine 10.3 9-12 

German Rhine wines, Moselle, etc. . 8.7 7-12 

Sherry 17.5 16-20 

Madeira .......... 15.4 15-16 

Champagne 10.- 8-11 

American champagne 8.- 6-10 

American red wine 9.— 6-12 

Sweet catawba >. . . 12.— 10-15 

American lager beer ....>. 3.8 1-7 

Vienna lager beer 4.7 3-5 

Munich lager beer 4.8 3-5 

English ale and porter 5.- 3-7 

Hard cider .... c ... . 5.- 4-8 

Brandy 47.- 40-50 

Whiskey, American best 43.- 41—48 

Whiskey, American common • . . 35.— 25-43 

Whiskey, Scotch, Irish 40. 36-43 

Rum 60. 40-80 

Gin 30. 20-40 

Chartreuse 32. 

Absinthe 51. 

^Drake's Plantation Bitters .... 27.6 
*Boker's Stomach Bitters .... 35.6 
"^Paine's Celery Compound .... 17.- 
*Ayer*s Sarsaparilla ...... 21.5 

*Hood's Sarsaparilla 15.8 

^Greene's Nervura 14.2 

* Very large sales of these are reported. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 19 

The physiological effects of moderate 
quantities of alcoholic drinks on the average 
adult depend upon whether they are taken 
before or after physical or mental work, and 
upon whether they are taken with food or 
not. 

Alcohol is a respiratory stimulant of only 
moderate power for human beings. Highly 
flavored wine and other alcoholic drinks 
which contain stimulating ethers have a more 
pronounced stimulating action than pure 
ethyl alcohol, and the stimulating action of 
alcohol is greater in the case of fatigued 
persons than in those who are not exhausted. 

The special effects of alcohol and alcoholic 
drinks upon secretion and digestion may be 
summarized as follows. 

When alcoholic fluids are taken into the 
stomach in not too large quantities, there is 
first a direct stimulation, leading to the rapid 
secretion of a powerful gastric juice. This is 
followed by a more or less rapid absorption 
of the alcohol, accompanied in turn by an 
indirect or secondary stimulation of gastric 
secretion. 

The presence of alcohol in the stomach 
does not materially Interfere with the diges- 



20 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

tive action of gastric juice when the content 
of alcohol is less than five per cent, of abso- 
lute alcohol. When, however, the proportion 
of absolute alcohol in the stomach-contents 
becomes equal to ten or twenty per cent, of 
proof spirit, retardation of gastric digestion 
becomes noticeable, while the presence of 
fifteen per cent, of absolute alcohol may re- 
duce the digestive action one quarter or one 
third. Strong alcoholic beverages, such as 
whiskey, brandy, rum, and gin, ordinarily 
containing from forty to fifty per cent, of 
alcohol, have an action upon gastric diges- 
tion practically proportional to the amount of 
alcohol present. In the healthy individual 
these liquors can be considered to impede 
directly gastric digestion only when taken 
immoderately and in intoxicating doses. 

Wines in small quantities do not retard 
gastric digestion, but, on the other hand, 
appear to stimulate. Larger quantities of 
wine, however, retard gastric digestion some- 
times in a very marked degree. This retarda- 
tion is due in large measure to other sub- 
stances than the alcohol. This is likewise 
true of malt liquors; the substances other 
than alcohol, such as the extractives, exer- 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 21 

cising a very decided inhibitory effect when 
taken in large quantities. 

Kegarding salivary digestion, alcohol and 
alcoholic beverages when taken into the 
mouth produce a direct stimulating effect 
upon the secretion of saliva, increasing at 
once and in a very marked degree the flow of 
the secretion. This acceleration, however, is 
of brief duration. Pure alcohol has no very 
marked influence on the digestion of starchy 
foods by the saliva. Wines, as a class, show 
a powerful inhibitory influence upon the di- 
gestion of starchy foods by the saliva, due 
entirely to the acid properties of the wines. 
Alcohol as used in small quantities, dieteti- 
cally, does not interfere with pancreatic diges- 
tion. 

Alcohol taken in moderate quantities pro- 
duces effects on nutrition similar to those 
produced by the starches, sugars, and fats in 
ordinary food in that it is oxidized in the 
body and yields energy for warmth, and pos- 
sibly for muscular work. Roughly speaking, 
four grams of alcohol will yield the same 
amount of energy as seven grams of sugar, 
starch, or protein, or as three grams of fat. 
The chief service of the fats, sugars, and 



22 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

starches of ordinary food is as fuel to supply- 
heat and muscular energy. Alcohol in moder- 
ate quantities acts in the same way, so far as 
heat production is concerned, and may be 
substituted for an equivalent quantity of 
starch or sugar to produce the same amount 
of energy. 

All of the ordinary nutrients in serving as 
fuel protect one another and body material 
from consumption. Alcohol has the same 
effect. Alcohol may, therefore, be considered 
as a food for fuel purposes, but it does not 
contribute to the building or repair of tissue 
and is not a complete food, that is to say, it 
cannot alone support life permanently, al- 
though in certain forms of disease a person 
may take relatively large quantities of alco- 
hol when he could not well tolerate any other 
kind of food, and thus be able to survive a 
time of special stress. 

Alcoholic drinks are rarely used for food 
purposes, and they are a costly and undesir- 
able kind of food, except in rare and special 
cases. Even their moderate use just before 
or during physical or mental work usually 
diminishes the total amount of work done. 
While alcohol in moderate quantities may act 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 23 

as a fuel food, in large quantities, and for 
some persons even in small quantities, it acts 
as a poison. 

It is difficult to give a satisfactory defini- 
tion of a poison, for there is no substance 
which is always and everywhere a poison. 
The term is relative ; conditions and circum- 
stances of various kinds must always enter 
into its conception. No one would maintain 
that a cup of delicately flavored tea is in any 
sense injurious or poisonous to the average 
healthy adult, and yet caffeine, the active 
principle of this cup of tea, is a poison as 
surely as is alcohol. The term poison belongs 
with equal propriety to a number of other 
food accessories, as coffee, pepper, ginger, 
and even common salt. The too sweeping and 
unrestricted use of this term in reference to 
alcoholic beverages immediately meets with 
the reply that if alcohol be a poison it must 
be a very slow poison, since many have used 
it up to old age with apparently no prejudicial 
effects on health. 

It is certain, however, that the excessive 
and continued use of alcoholic drinks tends 
to produce disease and to shorten life. The 
forms of disease produced by the excessive 



24 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

and continued use of such drinks are usually 
those which affect the liver, the kidneys, the 
heart, the blood-vessels, and the nervous sys- 
tem. Chronic catarrhal inflammation of the 
stomach is a common affection of persons 
using alcohol to excess, but the lurid pictures 
of the drunkard's stomach given in certain 
popular or pseudo-scientific temperance tracts 
are drawn from the imagination and not from 
nature. Cirrhosis of the liver, though not 
the most common, is the most characteristic 
pathological-anatomical condition produced 
by alcohol, and probably over 90 per cent, 
of the cases of hepatic cirrhosis are due to 
this cause. It is the result especially of drink- 
ing strong spirits, being rare in beer drink- 
ers. Excessive indulgence in alcohohc liquors 
is an important cause of chronic Bright's dis- 
ease, especially of the small granular kidney. 
In those who drink large quantities of beer, 
hypertrophied and dilated hearts are com- 
paratively frequent. 

The special toxic action of alcohol is, in 
the first instance, upon the nervous centres, 
as is shown by the familiar symptoms of a 
drunken fit. It is as yet impossible to deter- 
mine the part to be assigned to inherited or 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 25 

acquired constitutional habits of the body, 
chiefly in the nervous system, in the causa- 
tion or pathology of the various disorders of 
the nervous system caused by or due to alco- 
holic excess. It is important to knov^r that 
the immoderate drinking of alcoholic liquors 
may be the first symptom of some chronic 
disease which, when later recognized, is er- 
roneously ascribed to alcohol as the cause. 
It is known that many of the mental and 
nervous disorders of alcoholism, attributed to 
the toxic action of alcohol, are, nevertheless, 
dependent in a large measure on an underly- 
ing defective constitution, as an excessive 
indulgence in alcohol rarely produces certain 
of these disorders in persons of normal con- 
stitution. Inebriety in the parents or more 
remote ancestors ranks among the more im- 
portant causes of this inherited instability of 
the nervous centres. After making all allow- 
ances for this share of inherited or acquired 
defects in the causation of nervous manifesta- 
tions of alcoholism, there still remain many 
cases in which alcoholic poisoning is evi- 
dently the cause of serious disease of the 
brain, spinal cord, and nerves in persons of 
previously normal constitution, so far as can 



26 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

be ascertained. The excessive use of absinthe 
and other cordials and liqueurs is particularly 
injurious to the nervous system, for in these 
the flavoring essences, as well as the alcohol, 
are poisonous to the nervous system. 

One of the symptoms of alcoholism most 
common in beer drinkers is obesity, or exces- 
sive production of fat, which may appear in 
situations where it is not normally present, 
the most dangerous position in this respect 
being between the muscle fibres of the heart. 
The continued use, in excess, of the stronger 
wines and of strong beer or porter is a recog- 
nized cause of gouty manifestations in those 
predisposed to this disease. A much larger 
number of the victims of alcohol die of some 
infectious disease than of the special alco- 
holic affections. Persons suffering from 
chronic alcoholism have their resistance to 
many infectious diseases markedly lowered, 
as shown both by the increased liability to 
contract such diseases and by the greater 
severity of the disease when it occurs. Phy- 
sicians generally recognize that pneumonia, 
cholera, erysipelas, and other infectious dis- 
eases in persons who habitually drink to 
excess are more serious and more likely to 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 27 

produce death than in others. There has 
been a common belief that those who use al- 
cohoHc liquor freely acquire a certain degree 
of immunity from tuberculosis. Alcohol, if it 
does not actually predispose to tuberculosis, 
certainly furnishes no protection against it. 
The course of tuberculous disease in alcoholic 
patients is often more rapid than usual. 

The common idea that a large part of the 
injury to health due to the use of alcoholic 
drinks is caused by injurious substances such 
as fusel oil and furfurol, which have not 
been properly removed, or by substances 
added as direct adulterants, is erroneous, as 
is also the common notion that cheap liquors 
contain large quantities of such harmful 
ingredients. The injurious effects of the 
amount of fusel oil present in ordinary sa- 
loon liquors are trifling in comparison with 
the effects of ethyl alcohol contained in 
them, and the principal adulterants in the 
cheap whiskeys are water and caramel, a 
harmless coloring matter made from sugar. 

The general conclusion is that fine old 
whiskeys and brandies are nearly as likely to 
produce ill effects as the cheaper varieties of 
the present time, if taken in the same quan- 



28 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

tity, and in general the injurious effect is in 
proportion to the ethyl alcohol contained, 
which seems to be the chief reason why wine 
and beer are less injurious than distilled 
liquors. 

The injurious impurities and by-products 
of alcoholic drinks may be excluded alto- 
gether as a cause of alcoholism, for no mat- 
ter how high the toxic influence of these 
may be, it is plain that their role in causing 
the lesions of alcoholism is one of secondary 
importance. 

When alcoholic drinks are used only occa- 
sionally, or in moderate quantities daily with 
meals, the effects in man differ greatly in 
different individuals, depending on constitu 
tional peculiarities, age, occupation, climate 
etc., and they also differ greatly in animals 
as shown by experiment. 

An extended and prolonged series of ex 
periments to determine the effects upon rab 
bits of long-continued use of alcohol, made 
for the Committee of Fifty by Dr. Frieden- 
wald, showed that the young and smaller 
animals were the most susceptible. Some 
individuals seemed capable of tolerating daily 
intoxicating doses of alcohol for an indefinite 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 29 

period. One rabbit was given alcohol for 
over four years without permanent ill effects ; 
others were fed with alcohol for three and a 
half and for three years. On the other hand, 
some of the animals died of acute intoxi- 
cation after a few doses, and the majority 
succumbed after a shorter or longer period of 
time with gradual loss of weight and exhaus- 
tion. 

The ultimate effects upon man of the mod- 
erate use of alcoholic drinks cannot be ascer- 
tained with much accuracy for short periods 
of time. We have no trustworthy data as to 
the proportion of total abstainers, occasional 
drinkers, regular moderate drinkers, and pos- 
itively intemperate persons in the United 
States. From such information as we have, 
it seems probable that of the adult males in 
this country not more than 20 per cent, are 
total abstainers, and not more than 5 per 
cent, are positively intemperate in the sense 
that they drink to such excess as to cause 
evident injury to health. Of the remaining 
75 per cent., the majority, probably at least 
50 per cent, of the whole, are occasional 
drinkers, while the remaining 25 per cent, 
might, perhaps, be classed as regular mod- 



30 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

erate drinkers. In the majority of these occa- 
sional drinkers and in many of the regular 
moderate drinkers, such as those whose drink- 
ing is limited to one or two glasses of wine 
at dinner or of beer at the end of the day, 
no especial effect upon the health seems to 
be observed either by themselves or by their 
physicians. 

An inquiry into the use of alcoholic drinks 
among brain workers in the United States, 
including the leading members of the legal, 
medical, and clerical professions, distinguished 
scientific men and educators, managers of 
great corporations, etc., indicates that the 
percentage of total abstainers, out of 892 
replies, was 18 per cent. ; being 1.4 for phy- 
sicians ; 7.3 for lawyers ; 19.2 for business 
men ; 21.4 for professors and teachers ; and 
54.0 for clergymen. Of occasional drinkers, 
the percentage was 64.9 ; being for physi- 
cians, 83.4 ; for lawyers, 71.6 ; for business 
men, 53.7 ; for professors and teachers, 67.4 ; 
for clergymen, 43.4. Of regular moderate 
drinkers, the percentage was 16.3 ; being 
for physicians, 15.1; for lawyers, 21.1; for 
business men, 26.5 ; for professors and teach- 
ers, 10.6; and for clergymen, 2.6. The 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 31 

remarks of persons furnishing the reports 
from which these statements are derived are 
in many cases interesting. They represent 
all shades of opinion, but in general agree 
that the use of alcoholic drinks as a stimulus 
to mental effort gives bad results, although 
they may be agreeable as restoratives in 
fatigue. 

The regular moderate drinkers use mainly 
light wines ; the occasional drinkers chiefly 
whiskey and beer. 

Men use alcoholic drinks mainly because 
of their effect on mental action, and especially 
upon the emotional faculties. The taste and 
odor of the drink, its stimulating action on 
the digestive tract, the circulation, etc., are 
minor considerations affecting the preference 
for particular forms of drink. Sometimes the 
use of such drinks is due to a special desire 
to increase intensity of consciousness, — 
more often it is due to a desire for the seda- 
tive and quieting action which wine or beer, 
taken with dinner at the end of the day's 
work, exert upon mental tension or sensa- 
tions of bodily fatigue. 

Very often such drinks are used merely as 
an incident in social life ; there is no special 



32 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

desire for them, but it is less troublesome to 
accept them than to refuse them. On the 
other hand, the craving for such drinks is 
sometimes due to abnormity or disease of the 
nervous system, and this is especially the 
case when such craving is paroxysmal, that 
is, occurring only at intervals of weeks or 
months. 

The question as to the amount of alcoholic 
drinks which can be used freely by the aver- 
age adult without producing bad results is a 
difficult one, because individuals differ greatly 
in their susceptibilities to injurious effects 
from such drinks. It seems probable that 
there is such an average permissible quantity 
of alcohol, the minimum estimate of which 
is a glass of wine or a pint of beer in the 
twenty-four hours. The English standard, as 
formulated by Anstie, is the equivalent of 
one and one half (Ij) ounces of absolute 
alcohol per day, or about three ounces of 
whiskey, or half a bottle of claret or Rhine 
wine, or four glasses of beer, it being under- 
stood that this is to be taken only at lunch 
and dinner, and that the whiskey is to be 
well diluted. 

At least one third of an ounce of alcohol, 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 33 

diluted to ten per cent., must be taken before 
any departure from the normal course can 
be detected in the average adult, and while 
the effects vary with the dose, it has yet to 
be shown that harm is done when the dose is 
less than that required to produce an effect 
in psychological and physiological tests of 
divergence from the normal. 

If all substances known to be injurious 
in large doses are to be entirely given up 
on the assumption that small doses are also 
injurious, then all condiments and spices 
must be removed from our tables. Even 
sugar in concentrated solution is a powerful 
cell poison. Certain poisons are normally 
present in our tissues in such quantities that 
they subserve no harmful but rather a bene- 
ficial purpose. Such are the active principles 
of the thyroid gland and of the suprarenal 
capsules, both of which are far more power- 
ful poisons than alcohol ; that is, their lethal 
dose is several hundred times smaller. 

There are good grounds for believing that 
alcohol itself is always being produced in small 
quantities in the course of bacterial fermenta- 
tion in the intestinal canal, that it is, in fact, 
normally present in the healthy organism. 



34 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

In the table given above, showing the pro- 
portion of alcohol present in certain drinks, 
there are included a few of the so-called patent 
medicines which have a large sale in the New 
England States. A much more extended table 
of these drinks is given in an appendix to the 
report of the sub-committee on the physio- 
logical aspects of the liquor problem, vol. ii, 
pages 346-347. It will be seen that some of 
these drinks, under the names of bitters, cel- 
ery compound, sarsaparilla, etc., contain a 
greater percentage of alcohol than ordinary 
wines and beers and are consumed in quan- 
tities so large that they must be classified as 
beverages rather than as medicines, under 
which name they are commonly sold. As an 
example, it may be stated that 300,000 bottles 
of Ayer's Sarsaparilla are sold annually in 
Massachusetts, and as this contains 21.5 per 
cent, of alcohol, by weight, it is clear that 
many people are partaking pretty freely of an 
alcoholic drink without, perhaps, being aware 
of it. 

The sale of these beverages is greater in 
those States having prohibitory liquor laws 
than in those not having them, and their pop- 
ularity is due almost entirely to the stimulat- 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 35 

ing effects of the alcoliol which they contain. 
They are not used for social purposes. 

In view of what is known as to the effects 
of the moderate or occasional use of alcoholic 
drinks upon man, much of the methods and 
substance of the so-called scientific temper- 
ance instruction in the public schools is un- 
scientific and undesirable. It is not in accord 
with the opinions of a large majority of the 
leading physiologists of Europe as shown by 
the statement printed on page 18, volume i, of 
the report on the Physiological Aspects of the 
Liquor Problem. This appears to us to be a 
matter of grave importance. 

It is not desirable to attempt to give sys- 
tematic instruction to all children in the pri- 
mary schools on the subject of the action of 
alcohol or of alcoholic drinks. To older chil- 
dren, and especially those in the high schools, 
it does seem proper that instruction should be 
given as to the principal facts known about 
the use and effects of alcoholic drinks, the 
sociological and especially the ethical rela- 
tions of the subject, the means which have 
been tried to prevent the evils resulting from 
alcoholism, — and the results, — the object 
being to enable them to form an intelligent 



36 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

opinion upon the whole subject, especially to 
distinguish between mere assertions and sci- 
entific evidence. 

This teaching should not be made a special, 
isolated matter, but should be a part of some 
elementary instruction in physiology and hy- 
giene, and all that is really useful and desir- 
able can be given in a brief time, equivalent 
to a few lessons, following the lessons on food, 
and in this connection the fact should be 
emphasized that there is such a thing as in- 
temperance in food as well as in drink, the 
former not infrequently leading to the latter. 
In these lessons might be taught what the 
ordinary alcoholic drinks are, and of what 
and how they are made, the difference be- 
tween simple fermented drinks, like beer and 
wine, and distilled liquor, such as whiskey, 
the nature of the so-called " temperance 
drinks," and the general effects of alcohol as 
a stimulant and as a narcotic. It might be 
taught that while in moderate quantities beer 
and wine may be, in a certain sense, a food, 
they are a very imperfect and expensive kind 
of food, and are seldom used for food pur- 
poses ; that they are not needed by young and 
healthy persons, and are dangerous to them 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 37 

in so far as they tend to create a habit ; that 
in certain cases of disease and weakness they 
are useful in quantities to be prescribed by 
physicians ; that when taken habitually it 
should be only at meals, and, as a rule, only 
with the last meal of the day, or soon after 
it, and that alcoholic drinks of all kinds are 
worse than useless to prevent fatigue or the 
effects of cold, although they may at times 
be useful as restoratives after the work is 
done. 

It should also be taught that alcoholic 
drinks are almost always a useless expense, 
that their use in excess is the cause of much 
disease, suffering, and poverty, and of many 
crimes ; but that such use is sometimes the 
result, rather than the cause, of disease. 

It should not be taught that the drinking 
of one or two glasses of beer or wine by a 
grown-up person is very dangerous, for it is 
not true, and many of the children know by 
their own home experience that it is not true. 

In looking at the liquor problem from an 
educational point of view, one is impressed 
with the fact that many of those who are 
seeking to reform the drinking habits of the 
community by educational methods have 



38 . THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

failed to grasp the true educational nature o£ 
the temperance movement, a movement which, 
to be of permanent value, must be based 
upon a strengthening and upbuilding of the 
character of the individual, and not upon 
the amount and nature of the information 
imparted with regard to the physiological 
action of alcohol. With the terrible effects 
of the abuse of alcoholic drinks constantly 
before one's eyes, it is of comparatively 
little importance what one believes about the 
physiological action of alcohol on digestion 
or on heat production. On the other hand, 
the presence in every community of a large 
number of healthy and vigorous individuals 
for whom a small amount of alcohol forms 
a portion of their daily diet makes it impos- 
sible to take seriously the statements, too 
frequently made, as to the danger of indul- 
ging in a single glass of wine or beer. 

No one can doubt that the abuse of alcohol 
constitutes a threat to our civilization, and 
that the history of mankind would have been 
very differently recorded had it been possible 
to eliminate all the crime, misery, and disease 
directly or indirectly traceable to alcoholic 
excess. It is no wonder, then, if thoughtful 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 39 

people, the world over, are engaged in 
vigorously combating this terrible social evil. 
Among the various agencies employed in 
conducting this campaign, the education of 
school children is, in this country, the one to 
which those engaged in the total abstinence 
propaganda have attached especial importance. 
In nearly all the States and Territories of the 
Union instruction in the physiological action of 
alcohol has been made compulsory, and, where 
text-books are used, they are usually made to 
accord with extreme total abstinence views. 
They are, moreover, often openly " indorsed 
and approved " by a well-known powerful total 
abstinence society. So powerful has been the 
pressure which this organization has been able 
to exert upon school committees that pub- 
lishers often find it difficult to sell text-books 
which are not thus indorsed. 

With regard to these educational methods, 
it is important to observe that they receive 
little or no support from the members of the 
medical profession, who by their training are 
especially qualified to judge of the accuracy 
and value of the statements as to the physio- 
logical action of alcohol which form the im- 
portant features of the text-books in question. 



40 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

Of the practical results of such instruction 
the teachers themselves are, of course, the 
best judges, and, as far as they have been 
consulted, the weight of their testimony is 
emphatically opposed to the so-called " Sci- 
entific Temperance Instruction " as now given 
in our schools. 

Now there is no reason to doubt that physi- 
cians and teachers are as anxious to check 
the evils of intemperance as are the most 
strenuous advocates of total abstinence, and 
it is, therefore, highly important to discover, 
if possible, some common ground upon which 
they and all other educated and intelligent 
people may take their stand in working out 
an educational scheme relating to the physio- 
logical action of alcohol. The above attempt 
to outline such a scheme is commended to 
the thoughtful consideration of those leaders 
of the temperance movement who desire to 
cooperate with the representatives of profes- 
sional opinion in physiology and pedagogy. 
With cordial cooperation on the part of all 
who honestly desire to combat the evils of 
intemperance and are willing to recognize the 
fact that many articles on our dietaries (in- 
cluding alcohol) may under certain circum- 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 41 

stances have a nutritive value and under 
other circumstances a poisonous effect, and 
that these results may be combined in vary- 
ing proportions, there should be no difficulty 
in coming to an understanding as to the main 
features of an educational scheme which 
might well take as its motto the words of 
the Chinese proverb, " Intoxication is not the 
wine's fault, but the man's." ^ 

While the regular moderate use of alco- 
holic drinks taken only with food at the end 
of the day may produce little or no effect on 
the health of the average adult, such mod- 
erate use by young persons often leads to 
excess, and the cases in which such use is 
beneficial are exceptional. 

In general, the habitual use of alcoholic 
drinks is undesirable, and the increasing 
knowledge of this fact has led to a marked 
diminution of such use in this country among 
educated people. In all occupations where 
keen senses, sharp attention, or great concen- 
tration of the mind are called for, alcohol in 
any form or amount is injurious when taken 
during the performance of duty in hand. He 

^ A Collection of Chinese Proverbs (No. 1005). Wm. 
Scarborough, Shanghai, 1875. Triibner & Co., London. 



42 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

who has mental labor of a certain kind to 
perform, and he upon whom great responsi- 
bilities devolve, is forced, if he would be at 
his best, to use alcohol as a restorative only 
at the proper season. Alcohol gives no per- 
sistent increase of muscular power. It is well 
understood by all who control large bodies of 
men engaged in physical labor that alcohol 
and effective work are incompatible. 

The formation of the drink-habit commen- 
cing with occasional and moderate habitual 
use almost always occurs before the age of 
thirty-five, and there is very little danger 
of its occurrence after the age of fifty. 



m 

A SUMMAEY OF INVESTIGATIONS 
CONCERNING THE LEGISLATIVE AS- 
PECTS OF THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

Bt CHARLES W. ELIOT 

CHAnUIAH OF THE SUB-COMMIITBB 



A SUMMARY OF INVESTIGATIONS CON- 
CERNING THE LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 
OF THE LIQUOR PROBLEM. 

In April, 1894, the Sub-committee on the Le- 
gislative Aspects of the Drink Problem, con- 
sisting of Charles W. Eliot, Seth Low, and 
James C. Carter, engaged Dr. Frederic H. 
"Wines of Springfield, IlHnois, and Mr. John 
Koren of Boston, Massachusetts, to investi- 
gate the working of the liquor legislation in 
several states of the Union in which that legis- 
lation, or its history, has been characteristic 
or especially instructive. 

Mr. Koren worked for the sub-committee 
nearly seventeen months (May, 1894:-October, 
1895), studying on the spot the prohibition 
legislation of Maine, the local-option law in 
Massachusetts, the license law in Pennsylva- 
nia, and the dispensary law in South Carolina. 
Dr. Wines devoted nine months of his time 
between August 1, 1894, and September 
1, 1895, to studies of the working of the 
Missouri liquor law in St. Louis, of the his- 



46 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

tory and operation of the Iowa legislation, of 
the Ohio mulct law, and of the liquor legis- 
lation in Indiana. 

The reports made by Dr. Wines and Mr. 
Koren were published by the Committee of 
Fifty in a volume issued in 1897. In an in- 
troduction to that volume the sub-committee 
described the investigations and summarized 
their results as follows : — 

These investigations cover eight different 
kinds of liquor legislation. They are not 
complete statistical inquiries, for the reason 
that it is impossible, with any resources at 
the command of the Committee of Fifty, to 
obtain satisfactory statistics on this subject 
for any State of the Union. It would re- 
quire the authority of the general govern- 
ment and an immense expenditure to make 
an exhaustive statistical inquiry on the sub- 
ject of the consumption of alcoholic drinks ; 
and it is very doubtful if even the national 
government could obtain all the important 
facts on this most difficult topic. The consid- 
erable consumption of alcohol for medicinal 
and industrial purposes masks the consump- 
tion for drinking purposes. The amount of 
alcohol produced in the country gives, of 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 47 

course, no clew to the amount consumed as 
drink in any single State. The internal reve- 
nue laws of the United States and the freedom 
of interstate commerce complicate the whole 
situation. Neither have the researches of Dr. 
Wines and Mr. Koren resulted in complete 
statistical statements of the number of arrests 
for drunkenness, or for drunkenness and dis- 
orderly conduct, or of the number of crimes 
attributable to alcohol. Indeed, one of the 
results of their investigations is that no secure 
conclusions can be based on any such statis- 
tics now in existence, so much are the acces- 
sible statistics affected by temporary, local, 
and shifting conditions. Nevertheless, these 
reports give a trustworthy account of the 
legislation in each State dealt with, and of 
the efforts made in the several States to en- 
force the laws enacted ; and they give some 
indications of the success or non-success in 
promoting temperance of the various kinds 
of legislation described. They inevitably 
deal, also, with the social and political effects 
of the various sorts of liquor legislation. 
Within these limits, they are believed by the 
sub-committee to be accurate and impar* 
tial. 



48 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

The reports relate to communities which 
differ widely in character. Some relate to 
compact and some to scattered populations ; 
some to people most of whom are native-born, 
and some to communities in which there is a 
large admixture of foreign-born persons. The 
principal occupations in the States examined 
differ widely. Boston, Philadelphia, and St. 
Louis contain chiefly a manufacturing and 
trading population, while the population of 
South Carolina and Iowa is in the main agri- 
cultural. 

The difficulties in the way of researches of 
this kind are enormous. In matters which 
affect private character, truthful reports are 
proverbially hard to obtain. The accessible 
statistics are incomplete or inaccurate, or 
both. The effects of intemperance in pro- 
moting vice and crime are often mixed with 
the effects of many other causes, such as un- 
healthy occupations, bad lodgings, poor food, 
and inherited disabilities ; and it is very dif- 
ficult to disentangle intemperance as a cause 
from other causes of vice, crime, and pauper- 
ism. At every point connected with these 
investigations the studious observer encoun- 
ters an intense partisanship which blinds the 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 49 

eyes of witnesses and obscures the judgment 
of writers and speakers on the subject. 

The reports deal with some communities in 
which the local sentiment has been in favor 
of the enforcement of restrictive laws, and 
with others in which the sentiment has been 
adverse to such enforcement. On the whole, 
they embrace a sufficient variety of legislative 
enactments, and a sufficient variety of expe- 
rience with these enactments, in communities 
of various quality, to make the conclusions 
to be drawn from them widely interesting 
and instructive. Taken together, they cer- 
tainly present a vivid picture of the difficul- 
ties of such inquiries, and give effective 
warning against the easy acceptance of 
partial or partisan statements on the sub- 
ject. 

From the eight reports thus obtained, the 
sub-committee derive the following statement 
of results and inferences, which omit all 
reference to similar legislation and experience 
in other States, and make no pretension to 
any exhaustive or universal character. It is 
evident that methods which succeed in one 
place do not necessarily succeed in another. 
Moreover, none of the eight reports deals 



50 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

with the question under European or cosmo- 
politan conditions. 

The results of the investigation and the 
inferences from it which the sub-committee 
laid before the Committee of Fifty include 
a consideration of prohibition, its successes, 
its failures, its concomitant evils, and its dis- 
puted effects; local option; the systems of 
licenses ; licensing authorities ; restrictions 
on the sale of liquors ; druggists' hcenses ; 
and the effect of liquor legislation on politics. 

Prohibition, 

Prohibitory legislation has succeeded in 
abolishing and preventing the manufacture 
on a large scale of distilled and malt liquors 
within the areas covered by it. In districts 
where public sentiment has been strongly in 
its favor it has made it hard to obtain intox- 
icants, thereby removing temptation from the 
young and from persons disposed to alco- 
holic excesses. In pursuing its main object, 
— which is to make the manufacture and sale 
of intoxicants, first, impossible, or, secondly, 
disreputable if possible, — it has incidentally 
promoted the invention and adoption of many 
useful restrictions on the liquor traffic. 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 51 

But prohibitory legislation has failed to 
exclude intoxicants completely even from 
districts where public sentiment has been 
favorable. In districts where public senti- 
ment has been adverse or strongly divided, 
the traffic in alcohohc beverages has been 
sometimes repressed or harassed, but never 
exterminated or rendered unprofitable. In 
Maine and Iowa there have always been 
counties and municipalities in complete and 
successful rebellion against the law. The 
incidental difficulties created by the United 
States revenue laws, the industrial and medi- 
cinal demand for alcohol, and the freedom 
of interstate commerce have never been over- 
come. Prohibition has, of course, failed to 
subdue the drinking passion, which will for- 
ever prompt resistance to all restrictive legis- 
lation. 

There have been concomitant evils of pro- 
hibitory legislation. The efforts to enforce 
it during forty years past have had some 
unlooked-for effects on public respect for 
courts, judicial procedure, oaths, and law in 
general, and for officers of the law, legis- 
lators, and public servants. The public have 
seen law defied, a whole generation of habit- 



52 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

ual law-breakers schooled in evasion and 
shamelessness, courts ineffective through fluc- 
tuations of policy, delays, perjuries, negli- 
gencies, and other miscarriages of justice, 
officers of the law double-faced and merce- 
nary, legislators timid and insincere, candi- 
dates for office hypocritical and truckling, 
and office-holders unfaithful to pledges and 
to reasonable public expectation. Through 
an agitation which has always had a moral 
end, these immoralities have been developed 
and made conspicuous. The Hquor traffic, 
being very profitable, has been able, when 
attacked by prohibitory legislation, to pay 
fines, bribes, hush-money, and assessments 
for political purposes to large amounts. This 
money has tended to corrupt the lower courts, 
the police administration, political organiza- 
tions, and even the electorate itself. Where- 
ever the voting force of the Hquor traffic and 
its allies is considerable, candidates for office 
and office-holders are tempted to serve a 
dangerous trade interest, which is often in 
antagonism to the pubhc interest. Frequent 
yielding to this temptation causes general 
degeneration in public Hfe, breeds contempt 
for the public service, and of course makes 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 53 

the service less desirable for upright men. 
Again, the sight of justices, constables, and 
informers enforcing a prohibitory law far 
enough to get from it the fines and fees 
which profit them, but not far enough to 
extinguish the traffic and so cut off the source 
of their profits, is demoralizing to society at 
large. All legislation intended to put restric- 
tions on the liquor traffic, except perhaps the 
simple tax, is more or less liable to these ob- 
jections ; but the prohibitory legislation is 
the worst of all in these respects, because it 
stimulates to the utmost the resistance of the 
liquor-dealers and their supporters. 

Of course there are disputed effects of 
efforts at prohibition. "Whether it has or has 
not reduced the consumption of intoxicants 
and diminished drunkenness is a matter of 
opinion, and opinions differ widely. No dem- 
onstration on either of these points has been 
reached, or is now attainable, after more than 
forty years of observation and experience. 

Local Option, 

Experience with prohibitory legislation has 
brought into clear relief the fact that sump- 
tuary legislation which is not supported by 



54 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

local public sentiment is apt to prove locally 
impotent, or worse. On this fact are based 
the numerous kinds of liquor legislation 
which may be grouped under the name of 
local option. 

In the legislation of the eight States 
studied, five forms of local option occur : In 
Massachusetts, a vote is taken every year at 
the regular election in every city and town on 
the question, Shall Hcenses be granted ? and 
the determination by the majority of voters 
lasts one year. In Missouri, a vote may be 
taken at any time (but not within sixty days 
of any state or municipal election) on demand 
of one tenth of the qualified electors, town or 
city voters having no county vote and vice 
versa, and the vote being taken not often er 
than once in four years ; but in counties or 
municipalities which have voted for license, 
no saloon can be licensed unless the majority 
of the property-holders in the block or square 
in which the saloon is to be situated sign a 
petition that the license be issued. In South 
Carolina, every application for the position of 
county dispenser must be accompanied by a 
petition in favor of the appHcant signed by 
a majority of the freeholders of the incorpo- 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 65 

rated place in which the dispensary is to be 
situated ; and more than one dispensary may 
be established for each county, but not 
against a majority vote (operative for two 
years) in the township in which the dispen- 
sary is to be placed. In Ohio, local prohibi- 
tion is permitted, the vote being taken at a 
special election on the demand of one fourth 
of the qualified electors in any township. In 
Indiana (law of 1895), a majority of the 
legal voters in any township or ward of a city 
may remonstrate against licensing a specified 
appHcant, and the remonstrance voids any 
license which may be issued to him within 
ten years. 

The main advantage of local option is that 
the same public opinion which determines the 
question of license or no-license is at the 
back of all the local officials who administer 
the system decided on. The Missouri provi- 
sions seem to be the completest and justest 
of all. One year being too short a period 
for a fair trial of either license or no-license, 
Massachusetts towns and cities have to guard 
themselves against a fickleness from which 
the law might protect them. Under local 
option, many persons who are not prohibi- 



56 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

tionists habitually vote for no-license in the 
place where they live, or where their business 
is carried on. Persons who object to public 
bars, although they use alcoholic drinks them- 
selves, may also support a local no-license 
system. By forethought, such persons can 
get their own supplies from neighboring 
places where Hcense prevails. If their sup- 
plies should be cut off, they might vote dif- 
ferently. There has been no spread of the 
no-hcense pohcy in Massachusetts cities and 
towns since 1881, except by the votes of 
towns and cities in the immediate vicinity 
of license towns and cities. 

Licenses, 

The facts about licenses and the methods 
of granting them are among the most impor- 
tant parts of the results of this study. There 
is general agreement that hcenses should not 
be granted for more than one year. The 
Massachusetts hmitation of the number of 
Hcenses by the population (one license to 1000 
inhabitants, except in Boston 1 to 500) has 
worked well, by reducing the number of sa- 
loons, and making the keepers more law-abid- 
ing; but the evidence does not justify the 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 57 

statement that it would work well everywhere. 
The Missouri restriction — no license within 
500 feet of a public park — and the Massa- 
chusetts restriction — no license within 400 
feet of a schoolhouse — are both commend- 
able. Another Massachusetts provision, to 
the effect that the holder of a license to sell 
liquors to be drunk on the premises must also 
hold a license as an innholder or victualer, is 
well conceived ; but the means of executing it 
have not been thoroughly worked out. Penn- 
sylvania, outside of Philadelphia, licenses only 
taverns and restaurants to sell intoxicants 
for consumption on the premises. 

County courts have been, and still are, 
common licensing authorities in the States 
reported on. Officials elected for short terms, 
like the mayor and aldermen of cities, make 
bad licensing authorities ; for the reason that 
the liquor question thereby becomes a fre- 
quently recurring issue in municipal politics. 
A Massachusetts law of recent date provides 
for the appointment by the mayor of any 
city of three license commissioners, each to 
serve six years, one commissioner retiring 
every second year. This arrangement pro- 
vides a tolerably stable and independent 



58 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

board, without violating the principle of 
local self-government. 

Every licensing authority should have 
power to revoke a license promptly, and 
should always have discretion to withhold a 
Hcense, no matter how complete may be the 
compliance of the appHcant with all preHm- 
inary conditions. 

The objections to using courts as licensing 
authorities are grave. In cities, licenses are 
large money-prizes, and whoever awards many 
of them year after year is more liable to the 
suspicion of yielding to improper influences 
than judges ordinarily are in the discharge of 
strictly judicial duties. Wherever the judge- 
ships are elective offices, it is difficult for can- 
didates to avoid the suspicion that they have 
given pledges to the liquor interest. Since 
judicial purity and reputation for purity are 
much more important than discreet and fair 
licensing, it would be wiser not to use courts 
as licensing authorities. 

There are also grave inherent objections to 
the whole license system, when resting on the 
discretion of commissioners, which the experi- 
ence of these eight States cannot be said to 
remove. No other element connected with a 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 69 

license does so much to throw the Hquor 
traffic into politics. It compels the traffic to 
be in politics for self -protection. It makes of 
every licensing board a powerful political en- 
gine. A tax law avoids this result, and is so 
far an improvement. The Ohio law is a case 
in point. 

Bonds are generally required of licensees. 
Experience has proved that wholesale dealers 
get control of the retailers by signing numer- 
ous bonds for them. This practice can be, 
and has been, prevented by legislation of 
various sorts, — as, for example, by enacting 
(Iowa, 1894) that no person shall sign more 
than one bond, or (Pennsylvania) that bonds- 
men shall not be engaged in the manufacture 
of spirituous or malt liquors. The appearance 
of office-holders and politicians on numerous 
bonds, as in Philadelphia, might be prevented 
by a law declaring that holders of elective 
offices shall not be accepted as bondsmen for 
licensees. 

Before a license for a saloon can be issued, 
Massachusetts requires the consent of the 
owner of the building in which the saloon is 
to be, and the consent of the owners of pro- 
perty within twenty-five feet of the premises 



60 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

to be occupied by the saloon. Iowa requires 
the consent of all property-holders within fifty 
feet of saloon premises. The Missouri pro- 
vision is a thorough one, and can be evaded 
only at considerable cost and risk. Known 
methods of evasion are building and selling 
tenements so as to increase the number of 
voters in the block, and dividing ordinary 
lots into many small lots held by different 
persons. 

It has been a common practice to require 
every applicant for a license to file a certifi- 
cate, signed by twelve or more respectable 
citizens, testifying to the applicant's citizen- 
ship and good character. This certificate is 
of some value to a careful licensing author- 
ity, but it may conceal the carelessness of 
an unconscientious authority. In connection 
with a tax law it might work well. In 1872- 
73, at a time when the Supreme Court of 
Iowa had declared local option unconstitu- 
tional, Iowa demanded that this certificate 
should be signed by the majority of the voters 
in the township, city, or ward for which the 
license was asked, — thus securing a kind of 
local option. 

As a rule, the upper limit of license fees in 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 61 

cities and large towns has by no means been 
reached. The examples of Missouri and St. 
Louis (combined fee), North Adams in 
Massachusetts, and Boston prove that the 
trafi&c can be made to yield much more rev- 
enue than has been supposed. In 1883 the 
principal fees vrere doubled in Boston with- 
out diminishing the number of applications. 
They were raised again in 1888. In St. Louis 
the traffic pays a state tax, a county tax, an 
ad valorem tax on all liquors received, and a 
municipal tax which sometimes reaches $300 
a month for a single saloon. When a license 
attaches to a place, and not to a person, the 
owner of the shop fixes the rent, not by the 
value of the building for any business, but 
by the special value of the license. That is a 
profit which the municipality might absorb in 
the license fee. 

Restrictions on the Sale, 

The most important question with regard 
to any form of liquor legislation is this : Is 
it adapted to secure the enforcement of the 
restrictions on the sale of intoxicants which 
experience has shown to be desirable, assum- 
ing that only those restrictions can be en- 



62 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

forced which commend themselves to an 
enlightened and effective public sentiment ? 
The restrictions which the experience of many 
years and many places has proved to be desir- 
able are chiefly these : — 

There should be no selling to minors, in- 
toxicated persons, or habitual drunkards. 

There should be no selling on Sundays, 
election days, or legal holidays in general, 
such as Christmas Day, Memorial Day, and 
the Fourth of July. Where, however, such 
a restriction is openly disregarded, as in St. 
Louis, it is injurious to have it in the law. 

Saloons should not be allowed to become 
places of entertainment, and to this end they 
should not be allowed to provide musical in- 
struments, billiard or pool tables, bowling 
alleys, cards, or dice. 

Saloons should not be licensed in theatres 
or concert halls ; and no boxing, wrestling, 
cock-fighting, or other exhibition should be 
allowed in saloons. 

Every saloon should be wide open to pub- 
lic inspection from the highway, no screens 
or partitions being permitted. 

There should be a limit to the hours of 
selling, and the shorter the hours the better. 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 63 

In the different States saloons close at vari- 
ous hours. Thus, in Maine cities in which 
saloons are openly maintained, the hour for 
closing is ten p. m., and in Massachusetts it 
is eleven p. m. ; hut the county dispensaries 
of South Carolina close at six p. m. 

It has been found necessary to prevent 
by police regulation the display of obscene 
pictures in saloons, and the employment of 
women as bar-tenders, waitresses, singers, or 
actresses. 

Most of the above restrictions can be ex- 
ecuted in any place where there is a reason- 
ably good police force, provided that pubhc 
opinion accepts such restrictions as desirable. 
If public sentiment does not support them, 
they will be disregarded or evaded, as they 
are in St. Louis, although the Missouri law 
is a good one in respect to restrictions on 
licensees. The prohibition of Sunday selling 
is an old restriction in the United States 
(Indiana, 1816), and the more Sunday is 
converted into a public holiday the more im- 
portant this restriction becomes, if public 
sentiment will sustain it. 

All restrictions on the licensed saloons have 
a tendency to develop illicit selling; but 



64 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

much experience has proved that illicit sell- 
ing cannot get a large development by the 
side of licensed selling, if the police adminis- 
tration be at all effective. It is only in regions 
where prohibition prevails that illicit selling 
assumes large proportions. In license cities, 
where the regulations forbid sales after ten 
or eleven o'clock on Saturday evening and 
sales on Sundays, the illicit traf&c is most 
developed after hours on Saturday and on 
Sunday. 

Druggists' Licenses, 

The selling of intoxicants by druggists has 
been a serious difficulty in the way of enfor- 
cing prohibitory laws. In Iowa, when the 
law of 1886 closed large numbers of saloons, 
the druggists were almost compelled to sell 
liquors, — at least to their own acquaintances 
and regular customers. In Maine, the sale by 
druggists has always been a favorite mode of 
evading the law. States which have insisted 
on a proper education of pharmacists, and 
maintained a state registry for pharmacists, 
have had an advantage, when the closing of 
saloons has brought a pressure on drug-stores 
to supply intoxicants ; for the supervision of 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 65 

the State secures a higher class of men in 
the pharmacy business. 

The checks on the selling of liquor by 
druggists are chiefly these : first, none but a 
registered pharmacist shall be intrusted with 
a license ; secondly, no druggist shall sell in 
small quantities without a written prescrip- 
tion by a physician, and this physician must 
not be the druggist himself or one interested 
in the drug-store. The sale of liquor by 
druggists cannot be perfectly controlled, how- 
ever, by either or both of these regulations. 

Liquor Cases in the Courts. 

Under all sorts of liquor laws great diffi- 
culty has been found in getting the courts 
to deal effectively and promptly with liquor 
eases. Alike under the license law in Massa- 
chusetts and imder the prohibition law in 
Maine, this difficulty has presented itself. In 
Maine, after more than forty years' experi- 
ence, and after frequent amendment of the 
law of 1851 with the object of preventing 
delay in deaHng with liquor cases, it is still 
easy to obtain a year's delay between the 
commission of a liquor offense and sentence 
therefor. In Massachusetts, so many cases 



66 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

were placed on file and nol pros'd that, in 
1885, a law was passed against the improper 
canceling of cases. This law checked the 
evil. In 1884, 78 per cent, of all the liquor 
cases were placed on file or nol pros'd ; in 
1885, 34 per cent., and in 1893 only 3.41 
per cent. Wherever district attorneys and 
judges are elected by the people, this trou- 
ble is likely to be all the more serious. One 
consequence of the delays and miscarriages 
in liquor cases is that the legal proceedings in 
enforcing a liquor law become very costly 
in proportion to the number of sentences im- 
posed. 

Experience in various States has shown 
that the penalty of imprisonment prevents 
obtaining convictions in liquor cases. This 
penalty has been tried over and over again 
by ardent legislators, but in practice has 
never succeeded, — at least for first offenses. 
Fines have seemed to ordinary judges and 
juries sufficient penalties for liquor offenses. 
Laws with severe penalties have often been 
passed, and courts have often been deprived 
of all choice between fine and imprisonment ; 
but in practice such enactments have proved 
less effective than milder ones. 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 67 

A wise discrimination is made in some 
States between the fines for selling liquors in 
counties or municipalities which have voted 
for no-license, and the fines for selling with- 
out a license in counties or municipalities 
which have voted for license. The first of- 
fense requires the heavier fine. In Missouri, 
for an offense of the first sort the fine is 
from $300 to $1000; for an offense of the 
second sort, from $40 to $200. In States 
where a license system prevails throughout, 
the fine for selling without a license needs 
to be high. Thus, in Pennsylvania, the fine 
for this offense is from $500 to $5000. 
It is, of course, important that the fine for 
selling without a license should be decidedly 
higher than the annual cost of a license. 

It has been thought necessary to stimulate 
the enforcement of liquor laws by offering 
large rewards to informers. Thus, in Ohio, 
half the fine imposed goes to the informer, 
whenever a house of ill-fame is convicted 
of selling liquor. In South Carolina, twenty 
cents on every gallon of confiscated liquor is 
paid to the informer, and any sheriff or trial 
justice who seizes contraband liquors is paid 
half their value. Laws like these excite in- 



68 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

tense animosities, and necessitate other laws 
for the protection of informers. They have 
been effective, however, in some instances. 

Transportation of Liquor, 

The subject of the transportation of liquor 
into or within a State has been a very diffi- 
cult one for legislators in every State which 
has tried the policy of prohibition, or of local 
no-license, or of State monopoly. Maine has 
struggled for more than forty years with the 
problem of preventing the transportation of 
liquor intended for sale, but with very limited 
success. That state, however, presents pecul- 
iar difficulties ; for it has a much-indented 
coast and several navigable rivers, so that 
many of its principal towns and cities are 
accessible by water as well as by rail. The 
most minute and painstaking legislation has 
failed to attain the object of the prohibition- 
ists. In South Carolina the legislature has 
been more successful in defending the state 
monopoly. The lines of transportation are 
comparatively few. Severe penalties have 
been enacted against the transportation of 
contraband liquor; arbitrary and vexatious 
powers have been given to sheriffs, consta- 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 69 

bles, and policemen ; and the activity of the 
local police has been stimulated by a pro- 
vision that negligent municipalities may be 
deprived of their share of the profits of the 
state dispensary. Legislation of this sort 
intensifies political dissensions, incites to so- 
cial strife, and abridges the public sense of 
self-respecting liberty. In States where local 
option prevails, transportation by express be- 
tween license communities and no-license 
communities is practically unimpeded. 

Arrests for Drunkenness, 

Dr. Wines and Mr. Koren both dwell at 
various points on the great difficulty of draw- 
ing useful inferences from tables of arrests 
for drunkenness during a series of years. 
The statistics are often imperfect or mislead- 
ing because of the efficiency or non-efficiency 
of police ; or the tables have been constructed 
on different principles in different years; 
or the police administration in the same city 
has changed its methods during the period 
of tabulation ; or the drunk law has been 
altered ; or the poHcy of liquor-sellers in re- 
gard to protecting intoxicated persons from 
arrest has been different at different periods. 



70 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

In spite of these difficulties, the statistics of 
arrests for drunkenness may sometimes afford 
satisfactory evidence concerning the working 
of the prevailing liquor legislation, although 
the precise cause of the increase or decrease 
of arrests may remain in doubt. Thus, in 
South Carolina, diminution of the number of 
arrests was an undoubted effect of the Dis- 
pensary Law ; but it is not sure whether the 
diminution of public drunkenness was due 
to the early hour of closing (six p. m.), or to 
the fact that no drinking on the premises 
was allowed in the state dispensaries, or to 
the great reduction in the total number of 
liquor-shops in the State. In Massachusetts, 
an important change in the drunk law made 
in 1891 caused an increase of arrests, but a 
decrease of the number held for trial. In 
Philadelphia, the percentage of arrests for in- 
toxication and vagrancy to all arrests declined 
after the enactment of the so-called " High- 
License Law ; " but the probable explanation 
was that the keepers both of Hcensed saloons 
and of illicit shops protected drunken people. 
Another possible explanation was the inade- 
quacy of the police force of Philadelphia. 
In St. Louis, where the saloons are numer- 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 71 

ous and unrestrained, public order is excel- 
lent, and arrests for drunkenness are rela- 
tively few ; but this good condition is perhaps 
due as much to the quality of the population 
as to the wisdom of the liquor legislation. 
The fact suggests the doubt whether the 
amount of drunkenness is anywhere propor- 
tionate to the number of saloons. 

Removing the Motive of Private Profit. 
Iowa endeavored to carry out the philan- 
thropic idea of removing from the liquor 
traffic the motive of private profit, so long 
ago as 1854, by legislation which appointed 
salaried county agents for the sale of liquor, 
the specific reason given for this legislation 
being that no private person might be pe- 
cuniarily interested in the sale of liquor. No 
State has thus far succeeded in carrying out 
this idea. The Dispensary Law of South 
Carolina proposed to create a complete state 
monopoly, with no private licensed traffic 
and no illicit traffic, and with all the profits 
of the business going to the public treasury. 
This law, if successfully carried into execu- 
tion, would, it should seem, remove from the 
traffic the motive of private gain. The law 



72 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

has not been entirely successful in this re- 
spect, because the salaries of dispensers are 
made to depend on the amount of business 
done in their respective dispensaries ; and it 
therefore becomes the private interest of the 
dispenser to enlarge his business as much as 
possible. There is at present no American 
legislation effective to this desirable end. 

Theoretical Difficulties of Liquor Legislation. 

The South Carolina Dispensary Law well 
illustrates the theoretical difficulties which 
beset liquor legislation. It proposes to main- 
tain a highly profitable state monopoly of the 
sale of intoxicants. The revenue purpose is 
extremely offensive to prohibitionists ; yet 
this motive appears plainly in the practical 
administration of the law, as well as in its 
theoretical purpose. Thus, for example, the 
state dispensers sell the cheapest kinds of 
distilled liquor, because it is more profitable 
to sell that liquor than any other, the tastes 
and capacities of their customers being con- 
sidered. Again, the law does not prohibit 
the manufacture of distilled, malt, or vinous 
liquors; but, on the contrary, in some re- 
spects encourages those manufactures within 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 73 

the State. The fundamental conception in 
the law is distinctly antagonistic to the theory 
that liquor-selling is sinful or unholy; for 
the State itself assumes the whole of that 
business and takes its profits. Although 
supported by prohibitionists at the time of 
its enactment, it flies in the face of all logical 
prohibitory theory. It has been enforced 
with a remarkable degree of success, but at 
great cost of political and social antagonisms. 
The theory of the Ohio legislation is inter- 
esting in itself, and also because it suggested 
the present Iowa legislation. In Ohio, licens- 
ing is prohibited by the Constitution ; but 
when a person is found selling liquor, he is 
required to pay a tax of $250, and to give a 
bond to observe certain restrictions on selling. 
The tax is far too low, particularly for city 
saloons ; and the restrictions are not suffi- 
ciently numerous, and in many places are not 
enforced. Under the law as practically ad- 
ministered, saloons are much too numerous. 
On the other hand, this law prevents in some 
measure the evil effects of liquor legislation 
on politics. There are no licensing author- 
ities, no political offices for conducting or 
supervising the liquor business, and only a 



74 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

moderate amount of liquor litigation. These 
are weighty recommendations of the law. 

Although the Iowa legislation was origi- 
nally suggested by the Ohio law, it has a very 
different theoretical basis. In Iowa, prohibi- 
tion is the rule ; but by paying a fee or tax, 
and submitting to numerous well-devised re- 
strictions, a liquor-seller may procure exemp- 
tion from the operation of the prohibitory 
law. Neither the Ohio theory nor the Iowa 
theory is satisfactory from the point of view 
of the prohibitionists, any more than the 
theory of the South Carolina Dispensary Law. 
In the present state of legislation, different 
laws must be judged by their practical effects, 
and not by the ethical theory on which they 
rest. 

Promotion of Temperance hy Law, 

It cannot be positively af&rmed that any 
one kind of liquor legislation has been more 
successful than another in promoting real 
temperance. Legislation as a cause of im- 
provement can rarely be separated from other 
possible causes. The influences of race or na- 
tionality are apparently more important than 
legislation. That law is best which is best 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 75 

administered. Even when external improve- 
ments have undoubtedly been effected by 
new legislation, it often remains doubtful, or 
at least not demonstrable, whether or not the 
visible improvements have been accompanied 
by a diminution in the amount of drinking. 
Thus, a reduction in the number of saloons 
in proportion to the population undoubtedly 
promotes order, quiet, and outward decency ; 
but it is not certain that the surviving sa- 
loons sell less liquor in total than the previ- 
ous more numerous saloons. Again, it is 
often said that restrictions on drinking at 
public bars tend to increase drinking at 
home or in private, and there is probably 
truth in this allegation ; but comparative sta- 
tistics of public and private consumption are 
not attainable, so that it is impossible to hold 
a well-grounded opinion on this point. The 
wise course for the community at large is to 
strive after all external, visible improvements, 
even if it be impossible to prove that inter- 
nal, fundamental improvement accompanies 
them. 

Liquor Laws in Politics. 

Almost every sort of liquor legislation cre- 
ates some specific evil in politics. The evils 



76 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

which result from prohibitory legislation have 
been already mentioned. Under a license 
system, there is great liability that the pro- 
cess of issuing licenses will breed some sort 
of political corruption. Whenever high-paid 
offices are created by liquor legislation, those 
offices become the objects of political conten- 
tion. When a multitude of offices are created 
in the execution of liquor laws, they fur- 
nish the means of putting together a strong 
political machine. Just this happened under 
the dispensary system in South Carolina, 
where a machine of great capacity for politi- 
cal purposes was created in a short time, with 
the governor of the State as its engineer. 
The creation of this machine intensified the 
bitter political divisions which caused the 
adoption of the Dispensary Law and made 
possible its enforcement. The activity of 
liquor-dealers' associations in municipal poli- 
tics all over the United States is in one sense 
an effect of the numerous experiments in 
liquor legislation which have been in progress 
during the last thirty years. The traffic, be- 
ing attacked by legislation, tries to protect 
itself by controlling municipal and state 
legislators. 



LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS 77 

The commonest issue over which conten- 
tions about local self-government have arisen 
has been the liquor issue. The prohibition- 
ists early discovered that local police will 
not enforce a prohibitory law in places where 
public sentiment is opposed to the law. They 
therefore demanded that a state constabulary 
should be charged with the execution of that 
law. This issue has arisen in States whose le- 
gislation stops far short of prohibition. Thus, 
in Missouri, the governor appoints the excise 
commissioner who is the licensing authority 
in St. Louis; and in Massachusetts, where 
local option and high license prevail, the 
police commissioners of Boston are appointed 
by the governor. So far as enforcement of 
the laws goes, state-appointed officers or com- 
missions have often brought about great im- 
provements. In South Carolina, the Dispen- 
sary Act could not have been enforced had 
it not been that the governor was empowered 
to appoint an unlimited number of consta- 
bles to execute that one law. He was also 
empowered to organize at any moment a 
metropolitan police for any city in which the 
local officers neglected their duties in regard 
to the enforcement of the Dispensary Act, 



78 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

Nevertheless, violations of the principle of 
local self-government are always to be de- 
plored, unless a municipality has exhibited 
an absolute incapacity to govern itself, or 
unless the violations are plainly based on 
another valuable principle, namely, that of 
voluntary cooperation for common ends whose 
scope transcends the limits of single muni- 
cipalities. 

There are, of course, other promising di- 
rections for efforts to promote temperance, 
such as the removal of the motive of private 
gain in stimulating the liquor traffic, the sub- 
stitution of non-alcohoHc drinks for intoxicants 
as refreshments or means of ready hospitality, 
and the giving of a preference in certain em- 
ployments to total abstainers or to persons 
who never drink while on duty, particularly 
in those employments which have to do with 
the care or supervision of human beings, an- 
imals, and machines, or with transportation 
by land or sea ; but since these interesting 
topics do not strictly belong to the present 
legislative aspects of the drink problem, the 
sub-committee do not dwell on them. 



IV 

A SUMMARY OF INVESTIGATIONS 
CONCERNING THE ECONOMIC AS- 
PECTS OF THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 
By henry W. FARNAM 

SECRETABT OF THE SUB-COMMITTEB 



A SUMMARY OF INVESTIGATIONS CON- 
CERNING THE ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF 
THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

I. SCOPE AND OBJECT OF THE INVESTIGATION 
It should be clearly understood at the out- 
set that this chapter does not attempt to deal 
with all of the phases of the liquor problem 
which may have an economic bearing. The 
important subjects treated in the 12th An- 
nual Keport of the Federal Department of 
Labor, and relating principally to the pro- 
duction and consumption of liquor and the 
amount contributed by the traffic towards 
taxation, were, from the beginning, excluded 
from our investigation, because they were 
already provided for. Nor did we attempt to 
duplicate any of the work done by the Mas- 
sachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor and 
published in its 26th Annual Report. 

Of the questions that remain, our investi- 
gation considers : — 

1. The relations of the liquor problem to 
poverty and destitution as evidenced in the 



82 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

work of charity organization societies, alms- 
houses, and societies for the care of poor 
children ; 

2. Its relations to crime as shown in some 
of the leading reformatories and State prisons 
of the country ; 

3. Its relations to the Negroes and to the 
North American Indians ; 

4. The economics of the saloon as the 
chief distributing agency of liquor in large 
cities. 

By limiting our field we have made it 
possible, as we believe, to cover it more 
thoroughly than has been done hitherto. 
Several valuable investigations, it is true, 
have already been undertaken into these sub- 
jects in the United States. The Massachu- 
setts Bureau of Statistics of Labor has, we 
believe, the honor of having been the pioneer 
in this field, and in its 12th Annual Report, 
published in 1881, gave the results of an in- 
vestigation into the statistics of drunkenness 
and liquor selling, from 1870 to 1879, and 
the influence of intemperance upon crime. 
The 11th Census also published a report 
made under the direction of Dr. F. H. Wines, 
which dealt with pauperism and crime in 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 83 

general, and gave many facts with regard to 
the relations of intemperance to these evils. 
More complete in many respects than either 
of these is the 26th Report of the Massachu- 
setts Bureau of Labor, already referred to. 
The 12th Report of that Bureau, valuable as 
it was, covered but the single county of Suf- 
folk, and dealt with the convictions for one 
year. It related only to crime, and not to 
pauperism. The 11th Census, while covering 
the whole country and including both pau- 
perism and crime, necessarily confined itself 
to pauperism in almshouses, and took no ac- 
count of cases of poverty relieved by private 
persons. Moreover, it did not undertake to 
investigate the extent to which intemperance 
is directly a cause of poverty. Its statistics 
confine themselves to the liquor habits of the 
inmates of almshouses. These two things are, 
of course, quite distinct. The 26th Report 
of the Massachusetts Bureau covered not only 
crime and pauperism, but also insanity, and 
studied liquor as a cause in all three cases ; 
but it did not relate to any poverty excepting 
in almshouses ; and it did not extend beyond 
the boundaries of a single State. Most of 
the other statistics hitherto collected upon 



84 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

these subjects have been obtained inciden- 
tally in connection with other investigations. 
Among the more important studies with 
which our work may be brought into com- 
parison are the investigation of the German 
Imperial Statistical Bureau into public poor 
relief, made in 1885 ; a similar investigation 
undertaken by Dr. Boehmert into pauperism 
in 77 German cities in 1887; the investi- 
gations of Mr. Charles Booth in England, 
published in his "Life and Labour of the 
People " and " Pauperism and the Endow- 
ment of Old Age;" and the figures collected 
from the charity organization societies by 
Professor A. G. Warner for his " American 
Charities." 

As compared with these investigations, we 
may fairly claim for our work : — 

1. That, with the exception of the German 
reports of 1885 and 1887, it covers a larger 
number of cases numerically than any of 
those mentioned ; 

2. That it covers a greater variety of cases 
than any of them, since we have studied not 
only paupers in almshouses, but also cases of 
destitution treated by various classes of pri- 
vate societies, and cases of crime ; 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 85 

3. That it covers a much wider area terri- 
torially ; 

4. That it gives us valuable facts with re- 
gard to a greater number of nationalities. 

Such a thorough investigation has neces- 
sarily involved the expenditure of considerable 
labor and time. Mr. Koren was employed 
almost continually upon the subject for over 
two years. For a year he had the assistance 
of a statistical expert, and during five months, 
of four tabulators. This, however, was but a 
small part of the work performed, for we had 
the gratuitous services of the agents of 33 
charity organization societies and 11 chil- 
dren's aid societies and schools, while the 
superintendents and chaplains, or other offi- 
cials, of 60 almshouses and 17 prisons and 
reformatories rendered most valuable service 
either gratuitously or for a merely nominal 
consideration. 

II. IMPORTANCE OF THE INVESTIGATION 

The reader may perhaps question the econ- 
omy of our work. Are the results worth all 
of the labor spent in obtaining them ? Many 
persons whose judgment is worthy of respect 
have raised this question, and some have 



86 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

answered it in the negative. This is especially 
true of those who are engaged in the active 
work of poor relief. Seeing about them the 
evil effects of drink, and the mass of poverty 
and degradation due to other causes as well, 
they naturally say, " What is the use of try- 
ing to get more facts to present in a statis- 
tical form ? We know enough about liquor 
to know that its effects are bad ; whether a 
greater or smaller percentage of cases can be 
attributed to this one cause has little to do 
with the practical problems which press upon 
us. We cannot afford to waste our strength 
and our money in a search for statistics when 
all of the facts that we need to know are 
before our eyes." 

This objection is a very natural one. A 
generation ago it would probably have been 
insuperable, and the investigation just made 
would have been quite impossible. A very 
large number of the cases considered have 
been supplied by the charity organization 
societies, and the oldest of these societies in 
our country was less than twenty-one years 
old when our investigation was begun. Even 
fifteen years ago there were very few of them, 
and it is doubtful whether, at that time, they 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 87 

would have had the means or the interest 
necessary to collect the elaborate facts which 
they have so kindly and generously put into 
our hands. We have ourselves often been 
surprised at the willingness of hard-working 
agents to undertake additional labors, simply 
for the sake of adding to the fund of human 
knowledge. The fact, however, that almost 
all of the societies which were approached 
upon the subject entered readily, and in some 
cases eagerly, into our plan, and that but two 
refused to cooperate on any other ground 
than that of expense, is in itself the best proof 
that practical workers feel the need of just 
such facts as we have collected. The same 
objection may be raised against scientific 
work in any department of human activity 
which aims to mitigate the ills of humanity. 
The hard-working country doctor is loath to 
spend his time over the microscope, when so 
many people require his skill in the healing 
art. Still less willing is he to make experi- 
ments on living animals in order to satisfy 
his mind regarding some theory of disease. 
Yet the progress of modern medicine has 
been due to the fact that a few men have 
been enabled to work in their laboratories 



88 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

instead of at the bedside, and have thus 
gathered the facts and formulated the theo- 
ries without which the bedside practitioner 
of the day would be helpless indeed. 

It is in this spirit of scientific research that 
the present investigation into the liquor prob- 
lem has been undertaken. Of course we all 
know that drunkenness is bad. We all know 
of families ruined by the dissipation of their 
breadwinner. Such general facts are not to 
be sought for in such a study. Nevertheless, 
in spite of the vigorous efforts of nearly a 
century, the liquor problem is still with us. 
We know that, in spite of very drastic laws, 
the liquor law which will really seriously 
check intemperance is still to be discovered. 
This, at least, may be taken as the result of 
the investigation of the Legislative Sub-com- 
mittee, which, after a most thorough study, 
culminated in a negative conclusion. We 
know that the efforts made by moral and re- 
ligious agencies, great as have been their 
successes in individual cases, have not solved 
the problem. But we also know that difficult 
problems in other departments of life have 
been solved by means of a careful and scien- 
tific investigation, and by the use of many 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 89 

hypotheses and many scientific laws, no one 
of which, taken by itself, may seem to have 
had a very far-reaching value. We therefore 
believe that, in the ever present liquor prob- 
lem, which touches upon so many different 
phases of life, a careful investigation of the 
facts, such as we present, will be one contri- 
bution which, taken in connection with others, 
may perhaps succeed, in the course of time, 
in making the conditions under which we live 
better. The progress in sanitary conditions 
and in the treatment of disease, made through 
scientific investigation, ought certainly to en- 
courage us in attempting to further a moral 
reform by similar means. 

It will thus appear that our averages and 
percentages are not merely the playthings of 
over-subtle minds, but that they have a very 
practical use for practical workers. For those 
who are dealing with the poor, it must be 
of value to know the relative importance of 
different causes of poverty, because in this 
way only can they economize their energies 
and make them tell to the best advantage. It 
is equally important to know how different 
nationalities are affected by the liquor habit, 
for this knowledge should influence not only 



90 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

philanthropic effort, but often legislation. A 
comparison of the results of our study with the 
data obtained by the Physiological Committee 
cannot fail likewise to be of immense practical 
importance. If it should be found, for instance, 
that the economic effects of alcohol are more 
marked and striking than its physiological 
effects, or again, if the opposite should be 
found true, either will serve as a guide to 
those advocating temperance. They will 
know on which side of the question to lay 
the most emphasis. Such a comparison can- 
not be made for the present, but the more 
careful and systematic the work of this com- 
mittee, the more significant and trustworthy 
will such a comparison be, when the time 
comes for making it. Finally, our investiga- 
tion need not confine itself to a study of 
causes, but should also take into account the 
efficacy of economic ways and means, without 
belittling the results of moral suasion, reli- 
gious effort, and medical practice. In short, 
the more complete and thorough our know- 
ledge of all of the effects of liquor, the better 
shall we be able to adapt our means to our 
ends. "We may perhaps find that there is no 
panacea for this disease. It shows itself in 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 91 

too many different ways and under too greatly 
varied conditions. We may also find that, 
by adopting different methods for different 
conditions, we shall be able to attack it with 
something of that scientific accuracy with 
which such diseases as small-pox have been 
handled in the past, and with which typhoid 
fever and consumption are but beginning to 
be handled now. It may be found that eco- 
nomic pressure alone, if properly directed, 
may be a potent means of promoting temper- 
ance and diminishing the evils of the alcohol 
habit. 

An investigation of this kind, however, 
has much broader bearings than the liquor 
problem alone. It was, for instance, on account 
of the result of a statistical inquiry that Mr. 
Charles Booth, although strongly impressed 
with the importance of liquor as a cause of 
poverty, became the advocate of universal 
old-age pensions in England. This study of 
the almshouses, as well as of the condition of 
the population of the east end of London, 
led him to the belief that a large percentage 
of pauperism was due to old age and sickness, 
and a small percentage to vice or bad habits. 
Intemperance figured as a cause of pauperism 
to a very small amount in his statistics. 



92 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

Such figures as we have collected cannot 
fail to throw light on such proposals as his. 
If the figures from the United States should 
confirm the English figures, there might be 
the same reason for advocating universal pen- 
sions. Yet when we find that on an averao^e 
the poverty which comes under the notice of 
the charity organization societies can be traced 
to liquor in some 25 per cent, of all the cases, 
and that in almshouses the percentage is 37, 
we are inevitably led to the belief that, while 
much poverty may be due to the faults of 
society, more than a quarter of it in our coun- 
try is due very directly and obviously to a 
very prominent fault of the individual. 

III. RELIABILITY OF OUR RESULTS 

We shall naturally be met with the inquiry 
how far our figures can be relied upon, and 
this involves our method as well as our success 
in carrying it out. That there is an element 
of error in all statistical figures will be readily 
conceded. We believe, however, that we have 
reduced this element to as small dimensions 
as possible. There are two ways of getting 
statistics. One is to cover the entire area in 
question and to endeavor to count every case 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 93 

that may arise. Another consists in selecting 
certain sample districts, areas, or institutions, 
and studying these. The former method is 
usually the best where the facts to be gathered 
are comparatively simple and do not involve 
the element of judgment. But such an in- 
quiry can seldom be undertaken excepting 
by a government bureau, on account of the 
expense. And as an investigation by the 
Government usually involves the employment 
of paid agents all sent out from one centre, 
if there are any deviations from the exact 
facts, they are more apt to vitiate all figures 
in the same direction. Moreover, it is often 
difficult to employ a large staff of enumer- 
ators of sufficient intelligence to make an in- 
quiry involving moral elements. 

We believe, therefore, that the method 
pursued by us, though it does not pretend to 
cover more than a fraction of all cases, is, on 
the whole, more reliable. The institutions 
and societies have been selected, not with 
reference to any known peculiarity in their 
clients, but solely on account of the interest 
and ability shown by their agents, superin- 
tendents, or other officials. We have thus 
been able to command at a trifling expense a 
high grade of labor. 



94 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

The personal equation will, of course, enter 
more or less into their returns. One enumer- 
ator will he inclined to attribute a doubtful 
case to liquor, when another will not. But 
we can rely here on the well-known statistical 
law, according to which the error in the totals 
is much less than the errors in the individual 
investigations which go to form the totals. 
This may seem paradoxical to persons un- 
familiar with statistics, and yet it rests upon 
a simple observation. Where the chances are 
equally good that an observation may differ 
either on one side or the other from the exact 
truth, it is probable that in the mass the 
errors on opposite sides will balance each 
other. The individual bricks turned out from 
a kiln might differ considerably among them- 
selves, yet one wall of one hundred courses 
of bricks will differ from another wall with 
the same number of courses but very little. 
A careless writer will sometimes put five 
words in a line, sometimes ten, yet the number 
of words in a hundred lines will vary little. 
On the same principle we feel that, as there 
was no bias common to all of the enumer- 
ators, whatever personal elements may have 
entered into the returns made by one are 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 95 

pretty apt to be balanced by errors of the 
opposite kind made in some other. We there- 
fore believe that our method is a good one. 

As regards the material accuracy of our 
return Sj we may anticipate that they will be 
challenged from two opposite sides, for it so 
happens that they do not lean to either ex- 
treme, but fall, as it were, midway between 
the figures hitherto published. It was claimed, 
e. g. a generation ago by De Gerando, who 
wrote in 1839, that 75 per cent, of the pau- 
per cases in the United States were caused by 
drink,^ while Charles Loring Brace says that 
two thirds of the crime of every city are due 
to drink.^ A somewhat similar estimate is 
made by Mr. Boies, who says that alcohol is 
the direct or indirect cause of 75 per cent, of 
all crimes, and 50 per cent, of all the suffer- 
ings endured on account of poverty.^ 

On the other hand, more recent investiga- 
tions place the percentage, as a rule, very 

1 De Gerando, Bienfaisance Puhlique, vol. i, p. 318. The 
author refers to The Christian Almanack for 1824, and to 
the New York Ohservei , vol. vi, as authorities, but in neither 
of these publications could any justification for his percent- 
age be found. 

2 Dangerous Classes of New York, pp. 65, 66, 1872. 
• Prisoners and Paupers, p. 137, 1893. 



96 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

much lower. Mr. Charles Booth, in his mon- 
umental investigation into the population of 
East London, concludes that about 14 per 
cent, of the poverty in classes A and B of his 
investigation, and 13 per cent, in classes C 
and D, may be attributed to liquor. This in- 
vestigation was made, not into the " profes- 
sional " pauper class, so to speak, but into the 
poor of London, and classes A and B included 
the lowest classes of the community, classes 
C and D those slightly above them. In his 
study of pauper cases in the workhouse of 
Stepney, he attributes 15 per cent, to drink 
and immorality. 

Most of the figures hitherto pubHshed for 
our country fall short even of this. The fig- 
ures quoted by Professor Warner from vari- 
ous charity organization societies range from 
21.9 per cent, to 4.9 per cent., but in only 
two cases out of twelve go above 14 per cent.^ 
The cases collected by the New York Charity 
Organization Society in 1897 show 13 per 
cent, of liquor cases, while similar societies in 
Baltimore and six other cities yielded about 
6 per cent. Still smaller are the figures in 
Germany. The great investigation made in 

1 A. G. Warner, American Charities^ p. 34, 1894. 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 97 

1885 into the causes of pauperism by the 
Imperial Statistical Bureau claimed that in 
only 2 per cent, of the cases could the pau- 
perism be attributed to the abuse of liquor, 
while Dr. Boehmert's study of 77 German 
cities gave as the result 1.3 per cent. As be- 
tween these extremes of 1.3 per cent, on the 
one hand and 75 per cent, on the other, where 
does the truth lie ? We must, of course, un- 
derstand first of all that the percentage can- 
not be expected to be the same for different 
countries, or different parts of the same coun- 
try, or different periods. The Germans fur- 
nish a comparatively small number of cases 
in our investigation, and it may be that in 
Germany those who come under official poor 
relief on account of drink may be less numer- 
ous proportionately than the same class in 
our own country. It should also be noted 
that the German figures are based, not upon 
an ofiicial investigation, but only upon the 
official record of causes as stated, in most 
cases, by the applicants themselves. That 
such records should give the whole truth re- 
garding the influence of liquor upon pauper- 
ism can hardly be expected. 

The general statements made by De Ge- 



98 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

rando and Brace are not to be taken as giving 
serious statistical facts. Even if they were 
approximately true at the time at which they 
were made, it is to be hoped that the world 
has made progress in half a century, and that 
were De Gerando or Brace to make a similar 
investigation now, they might reach a less 
discouraging conclusion. We must not, there- 
fore, expect absolute agreement between the 
figures of different times, different conditions, 
and different countries. 

We should, however, expect to find agree- 
ment between the contemporaneous figures 
in the same country with a homogeneous 
population, or at least to be able to explain 
discrepancies, and there is an undoubted dis- 
crepancy between the results of our investi- 
gation and the results hitherto gleaned from 
the record of cases kept by the charity organ- 
ization societies. Our own figures, based upon 
the investigation of such societies, show 25 
per cent, of the cases investigated to be due 
to the use of liquor, either on the part of the 
applicants themselves, or of other persons. 
To take individual societies, the New York 
society returned in our investigation 23 per 
cent, in the aggregate and Baltimore 21 per 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 99 

cent. The discrepancy between these figures 
and those previously published is partly due 
to the fact that our figures include liquor as 
an indirect cause, while the others only con- 
sider it as a direct cause. Thus, while New 
York returned an aggregate of 23 per cent, 
of liquor cases, in only 19.5 per cent, was 
liquor a direct cause, w^hile Baltimore returned 
an aggregate of 21 per cent., of which liquor 
was a direct cause in only 11 per cent. This 
fact explains the discrepancy in part. The 
rest must be attributed to the greater care 
exercised by the agents in studying up indi- 
vidual cases for us. It is often difficult to de- 
cide whether or not a case of poverty is due 
to liquor, and in making the general statis- 
tics published in annual reports, there is a 
natural tendency to understate this cause on 
account of the very difficulty of getting the 
facts. In addition to this, there is a very 
proper desire to give doubtful cases the bene- 
fit of the doubt in making a record which 
may in the future determine the treatment of 
individuals, lest the statement that the appli- 
cant has become poor through liquor should 
prejudice his case, when he applies for relief. 
Our own investigation was stated to be, at 



100 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

the outset, purely impersonal. It was to have 
no effect upon the treatment of individuals. 
This would in itself prevent the lowering of 
the percentage in doubtful cases. Moreover, 
the attention of the agents being especially 
directed to one point, they naturally made a 
more careful study, and detected liquor cases 
which might otherwise have escaped their 
attention. We are confident that there was 
no desire on the part of the agents to make 
out large averages. Their instructions were 
carefully given in advance, and they were 
told that we wanted nothing but the truth. 
They were likewise instructed that, in the 
doubtful cases which often arise, they were 
not to attribute a person's poverty to liquor 
simply because he might, at some time in the 
past, have used up for drink a part of his in- 
come which, if prudently saved, would have 
carried him over a period of hard times. In 
other words, we did not think it fair to as- 
sume that all that was spent upon liquor 
would otherwise have been saved. That would 
have implied an amount of forethought on 
the part of the poor which does not exist. 
Poverty was not to be attributed to drink, 
unless the connection was direct and imme- 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 101 

diate, as, e. g. unless drink led to loss of em- 
ployment, or prevented the person from get- 
ting a situation, or unless he was known to 
drink to excess. 

For these reasons we feel considerable con- 
fidence in the fairness of our figures, a confi- 
dence which is confirmed by the results them- 
selves. The figures from different parts of 
the country generally show a small divergence 
from the mean, and in all cases in which this 
divergence is at all considerable, it can be 
easily explained by special local conditions. 
The very fact that the figures do not go to 
one extreme or the other is, to the minds of 
many, an indication of their fairness. In 
short, while we do not claim absolute mathe- 
matical accuracy for statistics based upon 
rather uncertain moral phenomena, we do 
believe that the results are as reliable as cir- 
cumstances will permit. Finally, they are 
confirmed in the only case in which we have 
the means of making a direct comparison 
with figures obtained under similar condi- 
tions. An investigation into the relations of 
liquor to pauperism and crime was under- 
taken in 1895 by the Massachusetts Bureau 
of Labor Statistics, an office which enjoys 



102 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

a well-earned reputation for accuracy and 
skill. The results of this investigation were 
published in the 26th Annual Report of 
the Bureau, and show that in Massachu- 
setts about 39 per cent, of the paupers in 
almshouses had been brought to their condi- 
tion by the personal use of liquor, and that 
about 10 per cent, had come there through 
the intemperate habits of parents, guardians, 
or others. Our figures, based upon alms- 
houses throughout the country, give an ag- 
gregate of a little less than 33 per cent, of 
cases due to the personal use of liquor, and 
about 8.7 per cent, due to the intemperate 
habits of others. While our figures are 
slightly below those for Massachusetts, they 
are much nearer to them than to any other 
sets of figures quoted, and this fact is an im- 
portant evidence of their general accuracy. 

IV. SUMMARY OF RESULTS 

The special investigation of the Economic 
Sub-Committee relates, as has been stated, 
only to certain of the economic phases of the 
liquor problem. The report of the Department 
of Labor relates to certain other phases. In- 
asmuch as both investigations were planned 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 103 

SO as to supplement each other, a survey of 
the economic aspects of the liquor problem 
should give the results of both investigations 
and show their bearing upon each other. 
These two reports taken together disclose the 
positive and negative aspects of the case. 
The report of the Department of Labor gives 
us a view of the wealth represented in the pro- 
duction and sale of intoxicating drinks. It 
states how much of the product of the farm 
goes into the production of liquor ; how great 
is the value of the annual product ; how much 
capital is invested in making and retailing 
intoxicants ; how many persons derive their 
livelihood from the traffic ; and how large an 
amount is contributed by it towards paying 
the expenses of national, state, and local 
governments. 

The report of the Economic Sub-Commit- 
tee shows us the reverse of the medal. We 
see here a large part of the destruction of 
wealth and of human capital caused by this 
same agency. We learn what fraction of 
pauperism, destitution, and crime may be 
fairly attributed to liquor, and how this loss 
is distributed among different classes and 
races. 



104 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

From the facts thus ascertained we shall 
also draw conclusions which may be of prac- 
tical use in dealing with the problem. For 
while the wealth represented by and the num- 
ber of persons interested in the liquor traffic 
indicate the economic forces which resist ef- 
forts to restrict the consumption of intoxi- 
cants, other facts, which will be referred to 
in their proper place, will show us some of 
the economic forces which work against the 
traffic, and which powerfully promote tem- 
perance. 

Magnitude of the Liquor Interest. 

Looking first at the report of the Depart- 
ment of Labor, we learn that the farm pro- 
duce consumed in the production of various 
kinds of liquors in 1896 was about 58,000,- 
000 bushels, if we add together the differ- 
ent grains alone. This included about 0.93 
per cent, of the consumption of corn, 11.27 
per cent, of the consumption of rye, and 
40.44 per cent, of the consumption of bar- 
ley (p. 31). The total product of all kinds of 
liquors in 1890 was $289,775,639, of which 
$182,731,622 was represented by malt li- 
quors, $104,197,869 by distilled liquors, and 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 105 

$2,846,148 by vinous liquors (p. 27). The 
capital invested in the liquor traffic of all 
kinds was estimated in 1896 at over $957,- 
000,000 (p. 50), of which 59 per cent, was 
found in the retail trade exclusively, and 15 
per cent, in the retail trade combined with 
some other business. The total revenue col- 
lected in 1896 by the Federal Government, 
States, counties, and cities, was about $183,- 
213,124 (p. 65). It is estimated that no less 
than 191,519 proprietors of establishments 
are interested in different forms of the liquor 
traffic, and that they employ 241,755 per- 
sons. A great many of these people devote 
only a part of their time to the liquor traffic. 
It is estimated that it would have required 
172,931 employees to carry on the business, 
if they had devoted their entire time to it 
(p. 51). Adding together the employees and 
the proprietors, we thus learn that the liquor 
traffic suffices to give employment to over 
364,000 persons, and if we assume that each 
of these breadwinners maintains on the aver- 
age a family of four persons besides himself, 
we have a sum total of over 1,800,000 per- 
sons deriving their support directly from the 
manufacture of and traffic in intoxicants, 



106 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

entirely apart from tlie farmers who produce 
the raw material, and the transportation agen- 
cies which transport it. This would represent 
a population as great as the combined popu- 
lation of New Hampshire, Vermont, Khode 
Island, and Connecticut in 1890, and would 
be about three quarters of the population of 
the colonies at the time of the revolt against 
Great Britain. These figures give us some 
idea of the mao:nitude of the economic inter- 
ests represented by the traffic. 

The economist naturally asks, however, 
whether all of this wealth and all of this 
activity constitute a real addition to the 
economic power of the country. Whether 
alcohol is a poison or a food is a question for 
physiologists, not for statisticians, and we do 
not propose to enter into it here. Whatever 
its possible effects may be upon the human 
system in small doses, all agree that, when 
taken in excess, it may diminish the power 
to labor, and lead to poverty and x^rime. By 
measuring the effects of liquor which involve 
a direct charge upon the public, we may thus 
ascertain a part of the loss of wealth occa- 
sioned by intoxicants. We do not, of course, 
pretend to estimate the total loss to the 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 107 

country. We cannot, for example, tell how 
heavy is the burden borne in silence by fam- 
ilies and individuals on account of the drink- 
ing habits of relatives, nor can we ascertain 
to what extent disease, or loss of vitality, or 
of productive power is occasioned by liquor 
in those who may still be self-supporting, but 
are not as efficient wealth producers as they 
otherwise would be. Looking, then, simply 
at the burden entailed upon the public, it nat- 
urally divides itself into two general classes, 
that occasioned by poverty, and that occa- 
sioned by crime. In the former, again, we 
must distinguish between the poverty treated 
in almshouses, the poverty treated by private 
charities, and the destitution of children 
treated by special institutions estabHshed for 
them. Inasmuch as the percentages for vari- 
ous classes in the figures derived from private 
charities run closely parallel to those derived 
from almshouses, differing somewhat in their 
aggregate, but differing comparatively little 
in their relations to each other, we may very 
properly treat all the various forms of desti- 
tution together. 



108 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

Pcycerty due to Liquor 

In studying the causes of poverty, we are 
confronted with a very obvious difficulty in 
that individual cases may often be attributed 
to more than one cause. Thus a person may 
be at once intemperate and lazy ; another 
may have met with special misfortune, but 
at the same time be shiftless ; a third may be 
sick from a disease which might have been 
avoided by more regular habits. The ideal 
method of investigation would be to combine 
the causes in such a way as to show their 
relative importance. This point of view was 
emphasized by Professor Warner and Dr. 
Dike before the American Statistical Associa- 
tion/ and more recently some special arith- 
metical methods of showing these complex 
relations have been proposed.^ In investigat- 
ing a single cause, however, it was obviously 
impossible to adopt any such method ; and 
it seemed better, especially as no statistical 

1 See Publications of the American Statistical Association^ 
vol. i, pp. 184 and 201. 

2 On this subject see " A Statistical Study," by A. M. 
Simons, American Journal of Sociology y March, 1898, pp. 
614-622 ; and " A New * National Blank,' " by Philip W. 
Ayres, Charities Review, December, 1898, p. 469. 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 109 

method for accomplishing this difficult task 
had been generally accepted among econ- 
omists, simply to ask the question whether 
or not the use of liquor had been a cause of 
poverty in the cases investigated. In many 
of the cases which make up our totals, it is 
to be assumed that other causes contributed 
to the impecunious condition of the subject. 
It is also to be understood that in no case 
was intemperance given as the cause of pov- 
erty, unless it was so important that without 
it the poverty would probably not have ex- 
isted, and unless it was obviously the princi- 
pal and determining cause. 

As a general result of our investigation, we 
may state that, of the poverty which comes 
under the view of the charity organization 
societies, about 25 per cent, can be traced di- 
rectly or indirectly to liquor, 18 per cent, of 
the persons studied having brought on their 
poverty through the personal use of liquor, 
and 9 per cent, attributing it to the intem- 
perance of parents or others. The general 
percentage is less than the sum of the partial 
percentages, because in some cases liquor acted 
both as a direct and as an indirect cause. Of 
the poverty found in almshouses, 37 per cent. 



110 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

can be traced to liquor, and of this again 32 
per cent, is due to the personal habits of 
the inmates, and 8 per cent, to the intemper- 
ance of others. In the case of the destitution 
of children, not less than 45 per cent, was 
found to be due to the liquor habits, either 
of parents, guardians, or others. While we 
cannot state in the aggregate how large a 
burden this represents for the United States, 
our percentages enable any one to estimate 
with a fair degree of accuracy how great the 
burden in any fairly representative State or 
subdivision of a State may be, of which the 
total can be ascertained. 

It is not enough, however, to get general 
figures, since they include many heterogene- 
ous elements ; perhaps more important and 
more valuable are the figures which show the 
different percentages for different classes of 
the community. Our tables and the report 
of Mr. Koren give the figures in detail. In 
this place it will suffice to bring out the more 
salient results, showing the difference (1) 
between the sexes; (2) between those of 
different political condition ; (3) between 
different occupations; and finally between 
different races and nationalities in the United 
States. 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 111 

Looking first of all at sex, we find, as we 
should expect, a great preponderance of cases 
of the male sex. Of the male paupers in 
almshouses over 42 per cent., of the women 
only 161 per cent., came to their poverty 
through the use of Hquor. If, however, we 
look at liquor as an indirect cause, we find 
the figures reversed. While only 6 per cent, 
of the men owed their poverty to the intem- 
perate habits of others, 12.7 per cent, of the 
women were in this unfortunate condition. 
A still greater contrast is found in the case 
of the applicants for private charity. Of such 
male applicants 22.7 per cent, became poor 
on account of liquor, and of females only 
12.4 per cent. ; but again, if we look at 
liquor as an indirect cause, we find that only 
3.8 per cent, of the men could charge their 
poverty upon the intemperance of others, 
while 17 per cent, of the women could do so. 
The picture which these figures call up of 
the lives of women ruined by the intemper- 
ance of their husbands or fathers is too sig- 
nificant to need any comment. 

If we compare the political condition of 
the poor, the contrast between classes is not 
as striking, but still important. Looking 



112 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

first at the paupers in almshouses, we find 
that, while 32 per cent, in the aggregate owed 
their condition to the personal use of liquor, 
these were distributed very unequally among 
the different classes. The aliens make the 
most favorable showing, and give only 23 
per cent, of liquor cases ; the citizens born 
come next with an average of 29 per cent., 
while the naturalized citizens figure to the 
extent of 43 per cent. The cases due to the 
intemperate habits of others show less differ- 
ence in the percentages. The returns from 
the charity organization societies tell the 
same story. While among aliens only 14 per 
cent, have become destitute through the per- 
sonal use of liquor, the citizens born return 
17 per cent, of such cases, and the naturalized 
citizens 25 per cent. These figures do not 
justify the inference that naturalization stim- 
ulates the hquor habit. They are probably 
explained by the fact that those nationalities 
which are most apt, on account of the lan- 
guage, to claim naturalization — such as the 
Irish, the Scotch, the Canadians — happen 
also to be those nationalities which are espe- 
cially addicted to drink. Thus many of them, 
when they have lived in the United States 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 113 

long enough to obtain naturalization, have 
become demoralized by the high wages that 
they receive and drink to excess. 

The tables with regard to parentage bring 
out a good many facts which will well repay 
study in detail. A single one will here be re- 
ferred to. In the tables regarding pauperism, 
it appears that, while those who have two 
foreign parents show more cases of pauperism 
due to liquor than those whose parents are 
native, those who have a foreign father and a 
native mother give a higher percentage than 
either. The percentage of pauperism due to 
the personal use of liquor when both parents 
are native is 26; when both parents are 
foreign, it is 35 ; and when the father is 
foreign and the mother native, it is 41. 
When the conditions are reversed, the father 
being native and the mother foreign, the 
percentage is only 31. 

In the tables based upon the returns of 
the charity organization societies, we do not 
find quite the same contrast, the percentage 
of cases due to intemperance being about the 
same for those who have a foreign father 
and a native mother as for those whose two 
parents are foreign. In both cases it is a 



114 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

little over 21 per cent., but we still find that 
the combination of a foreign father with a 
native mother is worse than the combination 
of a native father with a foreign mother. It 
may be that this fact is explained by the 
consideration that native women who marry 
foreigners do not, as a rule, belong to the 
most steady and conservative classes. But 
whatever the true explanation may be, the 
fact is in itself worthy of consideration. 

Particularly interesting are the returns 
which distinguish nationalities and races. 
In a country which has so many race pro- 
blems to solve, this part of the investigation 
must have a very practical bearing upon pos- 
itive methods. The comparison of races is 
somewhat vitiated by the fact that many of 
them are but feebly represented in the tables, 
and that, therefore, the percentages must be 
more accidental than in the case in which we 
have very large numbers. Thus, if we look 
at the charity organization figures first, we 
find that those nations which show the small- 
est percentages of liquor cases are Italy, Rus- 
sia, Austria, and Poland, but in all of these 
the totals are small. If we take the rest, 
which are more largely represented, we find 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 115 

that Germany leads, only 14 per cent, of their 
applicants being chargeable to the liquor 
habit. Norway and Sweden follow with 16 
per cent., the United States with 17 per 
cent., England with 18 per cent., while Can- 
ada and Scotland show 21 per cent., and 
Ireland 29 per cent. 

The relative rank of the different nation- 
alities, as given in these figures, is strikingly 
confirmed by the returns from the alms- 
houses. The percentages themselves are nat- 
urally all higher, but the different nations 
come in almost exactly the same order. Here 
we find that the Italians, Poles, and Austrians 
lead, with percentages running from 9 to 14 ; 
next come the Germans with 25 per cent., 
the Scandinavians with 27 per cent., the 
native-born with 29 per cent., the Canadians 
with 32 per cent., the English and Scotch 
with 39 per cent., and the Irish with 40 per 
cent. 

If we compare the Caucasian race with 
the Negroes on the one hand and the native 
Indians on the other, we find that the liquor 
habit is apparently not very prevalent among 
the Negroes. They show an aggregate of but 
9 per cent, in the charity organization socie- 



116 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

ties, and of 17 per cent, in the almshouses, as 
compared with 19 per cent, and 33 per cent, 
for white people in the same schedules, and 
these figures are strikingly confirmed by the 
careful, detailed reports made by a large 
number of correspondents in the South, as 
well as by the personal investigations of Mr. 
Koren. Indeed, the Negroes, being with few 
exceptions native born, lower the average for 
the native-born Americans, which would be 
above 19 per cent, in the charity organization 
societies, were it not for the Negro element. 
The Indians, on the other hand, though they 
do not appear in any of our statistics, ob- 
viously represent the other extreme, and from 
the reports of Indian agents and other corre- 
spondents, it appears that they drink more 
for the sake of intoxication and less for social 
pleasure than any other race in our country, 
and that the effects of liquor upon them are 
worse. While the Negro recovers rapidly from 
the effects of drink, the drunken Indian is a 
person whom it is well to avoid. 

We cannot draw conclusions from a study 
of occupations with the confidence which we 
feel in studying the different races, partly 
because it was not feasible to collect occupa- 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 117 

tion statistics from the private societies, and 
partly because the occupations considered are 
so numerous that, in many cases, the totals 
for each occupation are very small, and the 
percentages are liable to be accidental. Such 
figures as we have show, however, that the 
saloon-keepers lead : 84 per cent, of those 
enumerated in almshouses are found to owe 
their condition to the use of liquor. Next 
come the sailors with 58 per cent., the butch- 
ers with 57 per cent., the printers and iron and 
steel workers with 55 per cent. each. In gen- 
eral, the more skillful occupations do not 
make a favorable showing as compared with 
the unskilled. Thus the iron and steel work- 
ers and printers, the cooks and waiters, the 
machinists, all give a percentage of 50 or over, 
while laborers show but 44 per cent., mill 
operatives 43 per cent., and farmers 33 per 
cent. The intemperance of sailors is a familiar 
phenomenon, due partly to the fact that their 
life precludes the formation of a high stand- 
ard of Hving or a settled domestic existence, 
and that, therefore, when turned adrift on 
land, they are very apt to spend their earnings 
in sensual enjoyment. In the case of the 
printers, machinists, and iron and steel work- 



118 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

ers, it is probable that their intemperance is 
due to the strain of working under high 
pressure, and to the exhaustion produced by 
unsanitary conditions. It should be said, 
however, that these figures do not necessarily 
measure the intemperance of the various oc- 
cupations. We have counted, not the whole 
of the trade, but only those members of the 
trade who are in almshouses. In general, the 
higher the earnings of any person, the less 
likely is he to become a pauper except through 
some fault of his own. We should, therefore, 
naturally look for a large percentage of liquor 
cases in the better paid occupations. This 
same consideration should be borne in mind 
in interpreting the figures relating to other 
classes of paupers. 

The charity organization societies deal in 
the main with adults, as do also the alms- 
houses. As shown by our statistics, 45 per 
cent, of the inmates of almshouses enter be- 
tween the ages of fifty and sixty-nine. In 
order to get a fair view, therefore, of the 
poverty occasioned by drink, it is necessary 
to make a special investigation of destitute 
children. While the number of children 
studied by us is only 5136 as against some 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 119 

37,000 adults, we believe that we have cov- 
ered sufficient ground to indicate fairly how 
large a part of the destitution of children is 
due to the abuse of liquor. This part of the 
study was made through three different agen- 
cies : through societies for the prevention 
of cruelty to children and humane societies, 
deahng chiefly with children of the lowest 
class; through state organizations of the 
National Children's Home Society, dealing 
with many illegitimate infants ; and through 
two state public schools, which are, in fact, 
state orphan asylums. The general average 
derived from these cases shows that nearly 
45 per cent, of the children harbored owed 
their destitution to the intemperance of par- 
ents, while nearly 46 per cent, owed their 
destitution to the intemperance of parents 
and others together. The worst phase of the 
poverty occasioned by drink is thus seen to 
be in the fact, not that the drinker himself 
suffers, but that innocent persons suffer still 
more. 

When we distinguish between the white 
and the colored children, we find the same 
contrast, though not so marked, as was found 
in the case of pauperism and poor reHef, for 



120 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

of colored children, only 39 per cent, owed 
their condition to the drinking habits of 
parents or guardians, while nearly 46 per 
cent, of the white children were in this con- 
dition. Comparing children of native-born 
parents with those of foreign extraction, we 
find, as we found in the other studies, that 
the native Americans appear to advantage 
as compared with foreigners ; 43 J per cent, 
represented the proportion of children of 
native parents, and 49J per cent, the propor- 
tion of children of foreign parents whose 
poverty was brought on by liquor. If we 
still further analyze the parental condition 
of these children, we find, as might naturally 
be expected, that those whose father was 
foreign and mother unknown furnished the 
largest percentage of liquor cases, nearly 
60J per cent, in all, even more than were 
found where both parents were unknown. 
We also find that those who had a foreign 
father and a native mother supplied a larger 
percentage of liquor cases than those who 
had a native father and foreign mother. 
These figures confirm the results obtained 
from the study of pauperism and poverty, 
and indicate that, for some reason, the com" 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 121 

bination of a foreign father with a native 
mother, or a mother of unknown nationality, 
is particularly unfavorable to temperance. 

Crime due to Liquor, 

The study of crime offers peculiar diffi- 
culties. Crime being an intentional act, the 
causes must be facts which influence the 
motives of men. And as the motives of men 
are often mixed, it is evident that several mo- 
tives may combine to cause a crime. Crime 
cannot, therefore, be attributed to a single 
cause as easily as poverty. This fact has 
necessitated a somewhat complicated method 
of classification, under which we have en- 
deavored to ascertain, not only how far in- 
temperance was a cause of crime, but also 
how far it was a first, second, or third cause, 
and also how far it was found combined 
with other leading causes, notably unfavor- 
able environment and lack of industrial train- 
ing, in bringing about crime. We have also 
been obliged to make a further distinction, 
and to separate crimes against the person 
from those against property. Our tables are 
thus much more intricate than those relat- 
ing to pauperism and poor relief, but they 



122 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

also contain many facts which go beyond the 
immediate scope of our investigation, and 
which cannot fail to be of value to the crim- 
inologist. The danger of making sweeping 
statements with regard to intemperance as a 
cause of crime is nowhere better illustrated 
than in this section of our investigation, and 
the reader cannot be too strongly urged to 
study carefully for himself the tables and the 
explanation of them given by Mr. Koren be- 
fore trying to reach general conclusions. He 
should also be cautioned against the attempt 
to compare our figures with those based upon 
different classes of offenders. The statistics 
collected by this committee relate only to 
convicts in State prisons and State reformato- 
ries. They do not include ordinary jails, and, 
therefore, do not take account of persons 
convicted for mere misdemeanors, drunken- 
ness, or violation of the liquor laws. A few 
only of the leading results need be referred 
to here. 

The investigation covered 13,402 convicts 
in seventeen prisons and reformatories scat- 
tered throughout twelve States. It was con- 
ducted with great care, in many instances by 
the chaplains, in others by the superintend- 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 123 

ents of the institutions in question. Of the 
total number of cases thus investigated, it 
appeared that intemperance figured as one 
of the causes of crime in nearly 50 per cent. 
It was, however, a first cause in only 31 per 
cent. While, therefore, intemperance appears 
to contribute to crime in nearly half the 
cases investigated by us, a result which is 
strikingly confirmed by the investigation of 
the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics 
for that State, it was almost always only one 
of several causes, and appeared as a leading 
cause in less than a third, and as the sole 
cause in but 16 per cent. The difference 
between the importance of liquor as a cause 
of crimes against property and of crimes 
against the person is surprisingly small. It 
is, as would be expected, somewhat more 
prominent in crimes against the person, 51^ 
per cent, of such crimes being attributed to 
liquor, either on the part of the criminal or 
of others; but even in the case of crimes 
against property, the percentage is 49J. 

As in pauperism, however, we find con- 
siderable differences in the showing made 
by different nationalities ; and the order in 
which the races are ranked, when we con- 



124 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

sider intemperance as a cause in general of 
crime, is similar to the order in which they 
are ranked when we consider it as a cause of 
pauperism, though the two are not identical. 
Thus the smallest percentage of crime due to 
intemperance, 25 per cent., is furnished by 
the Russians. Next come the Austrians with 
34.62 per cent., the Germans with 44.87 per 
cent., the Italians with 50 per cent., the 
Americans with 50.23 per cent., the Eng- 
lish with 52.92 per cent., the Poles with 
53.41 per cent., the Scandinavians with 56.25 
per cent., the Irish with 56.70 per cent., the 
Canadians with 56.74 per cent., the Scotch 
with 58.33 per cent. This table takes no ac- 
count of the Negro race, who constitute but 
2000 of the total jail population studied. If 
we compare them with the whites, we find a 
singular contrast to the results of the tables 
on pauperism and poverty ; for while intem- 
perance was a cause of poverty in but very 
few cases among the Negroes, it appears as a 
cause of crime in a larger proportion of cases 
than among the whites. This apparent con- 
tradiction finds its explanation in the fact 
already mentioned, that while the effects of 
liquor upon the Negro are apt to be tempo- 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 125 

rary, they are, at the same time, more acute. 
Thus a Negro under the influence of Hquor 
is much more apt to commit some impulsive 
crime than a white man. He is, however, less 
apt to become permanently a slave of the 
habit and thus to sink into pauperism. 

The Saloon, 

Having considered the extent to which 
pauperism and crime are due to liquor, in our 
country, our investigation would be incom- 
plete, did we not give some attention to the 
means by which a large part of the liquor is 
conveyed to drinkers. The evils of excessive 
drinking are well recognized, and yet the sa- 
loon seems to flourish in spite of these evils. 
We must, therefore, analyze the saloon, as 
we have analyzed the statistics of pauperism 
and crime, and endeavor to learn its true na- 
ture. The reports which have been made for 
us in several large cities, especially Chicago, 
New York, Boston, and San Francisco, con- 
cur in showing that the saloon, though sup- 
plying the means of intemperance, is not 
exclusively devoted to this purpose. Its char- 
acter differs naturally with the locality in 
which it is situated, and with the nationality 



126 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

and occupation of its patrons, but it generally 
attracts custom by ministering to the social 
wants of the poor man.^ Here he finds com- 
panionship, recreation, literature, even kind- 
ness, and help in trouble. What more natu- 
ral than that he should become its patron, 
even though the desire for drink may not be 
very strong? This is seen in the fact that 
saloons flourish among nationalities like the 
Jews in New York, which are noted for their 
moderation. 

The fact that the saloon is more than a 
mere drinking place, and that it supplies 
many legitimate wants besides the craving 
for intoxication, should be frankly recog- 
nized, and ought to be of help to those who 
are engaged in practical efforts to counteract 
the evils of intemperance. This part of our 
investigation has been carried on mainly 
through the agency of social and university 
settlements, and these institutions are already 
taking advantage of the knowledge gained 
in their daily experience with the poor to 
offer at least some of those counteracting 

1 This feature of the saloon was graphically described 
more than a quarter of a century ago, by Charles Loring 
Brace, in Dangerous Classes of New York, p. 64. 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 127 

attractions and positive forces without which 
the driving out of the spirit of drink will be 
of no avail. 



V. ECONOMIC FORCES WORKING FOR AND 
AGAINST THE CONSUMPTION OF LIQUOR 

The large interests represented by the 
capital invested in the production and sale of 
liquors and the large number of persons who 
gain their livelihood in connection with it do 
not necessarily represent a force working for 
intemperance. They certainly indicate, how- 
ever, some measure of the resistance which 
must be encountered in any effort to abolish 
or restrict the use of liquor, and they explain 
the success with which radical reformatory 
measures are often thwarted. Yet these fig- 
ures, formidable as they are, are not alto- 
gether discouraging. The largest interests 
are represented by the least alcoholic bever- 
ages. In 1890 the manufacture of malt 
liquors gave employment to 34,800 persons 
and yielded a product of $182,731,622 ; the 
manufacture of distilled liquors employed but 
5343 persons and yielded a product of but 
$104,197,869.^ In 1900 the value of malt 

1 Twelfth Annual Report of the Department of Lahorf p. 27. 



128 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

liquors had increased to $237,269,713, and 
the persons engaged in their production to 
46,685, while the value o£ distilled liquors 
had fallen to $96,798,443, and the producers 
to 4383.^ And if we look at the consumption 
of liquors for a series of years, we find a 
marked decline in the more alcoholic varie- 
ties. It is, unfortunately, no longer true, as 
it was in 1896, that the per capita consump- 
tion of distilled liquors in the United States 
is declining, the amount having risen from 
1.01 gallons in 1896 to 1.46 in 1903. But 
in 1840 the average was 2.52 gallons per 
capita. On the other hand, the consumption 
of malt liquors has risen from 1.36 gallons 
per capita in 1840 to 18.04 in 1903.' Thus 
we find a gradual substitution of lighter for 
stronger drinks. 

This does not seem to be fortuitous. There 
are very powerful economic forces which 
almost compel moderation in modern indus- 
try. It does not seem too optimistic to say 
that a complete change has taken place in 
the habits of the wage-earning class since the 

1 Twelfth Census^ vol. vii, p. 10. 

2 Twelfth Annual Report of the Department of Labor, 
p. 35, and Statistical Abstract of the United States for 1903. 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 129 

days, in the early part of this century, when 
men went on strike for the sake of getting 
their rations of rum. It was considered a 
remarkable achievement in 1817 for a ship 
to be completed, in spite of such resistance, 
without the use of Hquor in any form,^ and 
James Brewster had to overcome a long-es- 
tablished custom when he put a stop to 
drinking in his carriage factory in New 
Haven, early in the century. 

This change has been furthered by two 
agencies : the self-interest of the employed 
on the one hand, and the self-interest of the 
employers on the other. Not only were 
rations of grog common among mechanics 
in the early days of the century, but the 
early labor organizations were almost always 
more or less associated with drink. It was 
common in England for the unions to meet 
in public houses, and a certain allowance, 
known as " liquor allowance," was made for 
drinks. Even as late as 1837, according to 
Mr. and Mrs. Webb,^ the rules of the Steam 
Engine Makers' Society directed that one 
third of the weekly contribution should be 

1 Wright, Industrial Evolution^ p. 276. 

2 The History of Trade Unionism^ p. 185. 



130 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

spent in the refreshment of the members. 
The executive committees of the larger 
societies, however, began to oppose this cus- 
tom, and in the revision of 1846 the provi- 
sion just quoted was left out of the rules of 
the society. 

As the unions have become larger and 
wealthier, they have been able to emancipate 
themselves from the public houses by having 
their own places of meeting, while the impor- 
tance of keeping sober during strikes has 
impressed itself more and more upon them. 
The very magnitude of their financial opera- 
tions necessitates the election of temperate 
men to the higher offices, and the develop- 
ment of an elaborate system of insurance 
benefits gives each member a direct interest 
in the sobriety of his fellows. No member of 
a union wants to feel that his contributions, 
laboriously saved from small earnings, are to 
be used up for the support of a drunken 
fellow member. 

What is true of English unions is true to 
a large extent of our own, and as far as their 
public utterances are concerned, our unions 
stand strictly for moderation, in spite of occa- 
sional lapses on the part of walking delegates 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 131 

and others. Injunctions in favor of modera- 
tion are found in many passages of their 
rules. Thus, in some cases, the rules provide 
that, if a man is discharged on account of 
drunkenness, no steps shall be taken to rein- 
state him, as in the case of the Iron, Steel, 
and Tin Workers. In many cases the liquor 
traffic, as such, is tabooed ; and a man who 
goes into it is excluded from the union. This 
is done by the Metal Pohshers, the Core 
Makers, the Iron Moulders, the Retail Clerks, 
and the Knights of Labor. In still other 
cases the person is excluded from the benefits 
to which he would be entitled in case of sick- 
ness, accident, or unemployment. This is 
true of the Iron Moulders, the Blacksmiths, 
the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and 
Joiners, the Wood Workers, the Painters and 
Decorators, the Leather Workers on Horse 
Goods, the Tobacco Workers, the Cigar 
Makers, and the Retail Clerks. Many unions 
fine or otherwise punish those who attend 
meetings in an intoxicated condition, and the 
Trades and Labor Council of Fort Wayne, 
Ind., goes so far as to provide that " the 
Council shall never, on any occasion, where 
it is giving a demonstration^ celebration, 



132 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

excursion, picnic, ball, or entertainment of 
any description, sell intoxicating liquors itself, 
or grant the privilege to sell intoxicating 
liquors to any person or persons, firm, society, 
or company." 

The employers, on the other hand, equally 
feel the importance of sobriety as a means of 
preventing accidents, of insuring good work, 
and of securing responsibility. The report 
made by the Department of Labor on this 
subject reveals an agency which has hitherto 
been little noticed. The schedule of inquiries 
issued by the Department brought returns 
from over 7000 establishments, employing 
1,700,000 persons. These establishments are 
no small fraction of the industry o£ the 
country. In transportation lines, 713 replied, 
representing 458,000 employees. Of the 6976 
who answered the specific inquiry regarding 
liquor, 5363 reported that means were taken 
to ascertain the habits of employees, and 
1794 prohibited, more or less strictly, drink- 
ing. In most of these cases, the philan- 
thropic motive seems to have counted for 
little. Of the 1794 who restrict their em- 
ployees in the use of intoxicating liquors, 28 
give as their reason, " to make good example 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 133 

for other employees;" two, "to guard 
against temptation ; " and two, " for the good 
of employees." Generally, the object is either 
to prevent accidents, or to secure better work, 
better economy, or greater responsibiHty in 
positions of trust. 

As more things are done by machinery, 
as trolley-cars supplant horse-cars, as imple- 
ments of greater precision and refinement 
take the place of cruder ones, as the speed at 
which machinery is run is increased, as the 
intensity with which people work becomes 
greater, the necessity of having a clear head 
during the hours of labor becomes impera- 
tive, and the very conditions of modern busi- 
ness life necessitate sobriety on the part of 
the workers. Those who would find profit- 
able employment realize more and more the 
importance of moderation in drink. 

It is hardly necessary to say that the Sub- 
committee on the Economic Aspects of the 
Liquor Problem, having been appointed to 
study those aspects only, has not referred to 
the moral side of the case. But it cannot be 
without interest to those who are especially 
active in the use of moral agencies of reform 
to learn that these agencies may often be 



134 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

powerfully reinforced by economic considera- 
tions. Our investigation shows, as we believe, 
that economic forces are already working in 
the direction of moderation which need but 
be stimulated and directed to become effec- 
tive allies of the moral agencies which are 
attacking the evils of the liquor habit. 



A SUMMARY OF INVESTIGATIONS 
CONCERNING THE ETHICAL ASPECTS 
OF THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

By JACOB L. GREENE 

CHAISMAfi OF THE 6CB-C0MMITTES 



^ SUMMARY OF INVESTIGATIONS CON- 
CERNING THE ETHICAL ASPECTS OP 
THE LIQUOR PROBLEM ^ 

As the reports of the several committees 
have been presented, two things have be- 
come increasingly evident : 1st, Each report, 
whether dealing with the physiological, eco- 
nomic, sociological, or legislative aspects, 
heads up in a problem whose ethical signifi- 
cance is too obvious for discussion : a ques- 
tion of right use and abuse; of means of 
remedy and control ; of individual and col- 
lective responsibility. Each problem so pre- 
sents itself as to demand immediate issue in 
personal conduct and in collective attitude 
and action, and bears on its face the main 
lines at least of its own determination. 

The ethical aspects presented by these 
reports seem to group themselves somewhat 
as follows : — 

The Physiological Committee has clearly 

1 The death of Mr. Greene, March, 1905, has prevented 
the amplification of his special report. 



138 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

defined the value of alcohol as a food and Its 
usefulness as a food adjunct, and has dis- 
criminated these from its use as a mere stim- 
ulant and as a remedy in the hands of the 
medical profession: its range of necessary 
use in either aspect is shown to be very 
limited : the dangers from use so limited, 
whether in personal effect or in the forma- 
tion of morbid appetite, are practically 7iiL 

Danger arises outside such use — how far 
outside seems to be a matter of individual 
temperament, condition, and circumstance : 
the proper limits, if any, of mere pleasurable 
use, are therefore impossible of definition : 
but it is here that the border-land of danger 
is entered : the influences which here tend 
to operate disastrously are rooted in the 
social nature and relations of man. As re- 
gards the great body of drinkers in saloons, 
these are clearly set forth in Mr. Calkins* 
very valuable report to Dr. Peabody's sub- 
committee ; and the same influences, under 
varying conditions, operate to the same end 
in all groups of society. It seems hardly an 
exaggeration to say that the whole strength 
of the liquor traffic lies in the weakness of 
human nature on its social side, and it is on 



ETHICAL ASPECTS 139 

the structural social unit — the family — that 
retribution falls most crushingly. 

The economic aspects, in large and in 
miserable detail, are a part of the extension 
of its blighting malignity to all whom the 
drink-habit touches. The study of the legis- 
lative aspects shows how inadequate, if not 
worse, is mere statutory prohibition : how it 
fails to touch any spring of evil ; and how 
at best it can but support some remedial 
treatment based upon something other than 
legislation ; something that finds deeper and 
sound hold in human nature on its social 
side. 

Obviously, the questions of remedy resolve, 
themselves to two: those which are pallia- 
tive of the visible evils that aiB^ct or threaten 
society and tend to minimize and remove 
them as far as possible by some method and 
degree of repression, and those which go 
deeper and seek to remove the source of the 
evil by the redemption of human nature, 
procuring its action on a right ethical plane. 
And this last can be accomplished only in 
the souls of individual men. Man by man 
they must be won to righteousness. There 
is no salvation for the mass as a mass. Atom 



140 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

by atom must the leaven do its slow, tedious, 
patient work until the whole is leavened 
because each particle is leavened. There is 
no short cut. 

Secondly, the wider study of the drink- 
problem brought out very clearly the oft 
forgotten fact that, especially in our mixed 
American communities, it is in the large and 
in a very definite sense a local problem, in 
that its aspects of evil and its remedial treat- 
ment vary with the character of the popula- 
tion, and what may be suited to or practi- 
cable under one set of conditions involving 
race, temperament, industrial, economic, and 
social conditions, may require much modifi- 
cation applied to different conditions. It 
therefore becomes practically impossible to 
dogmatize with universal acceptance, or to 
formulate rules of procedure everywhere 
equally appHcable. It came to be felt that, 
as methods must more or less vary, the best 
aid that could be given to men competent to 
the local work would be to furnish them 
the facts set forth in the several sub-com- 
mittee reports, simply emphasizing their eth- 
ical significance, and leaving them to apply 
the clear principles according to circum- 



ETHICAL ASPECTS 141 

stances, unhindered by prescription. And no 
amount of prescription can make effective 
the work of incompetent men, or men incap- 
able of applying principles for themselves. 
As in all human effort on the dual lines of 
overcoming the evil that men are doing and 
removing the evil itself from the hearts of 
men, there needs be on the part of all laborers 
in this field of reform a clear recognition of 
the fact that the work is never done : it is 
always being done ; it is always unfinished. 
Each new generation, each wave of tempta- 
tion that passes over the lives of men, renews 
the problem and demands new labors. 

To one observant of the manifold degra- 
dations and distresses caused by drink, and 
moved by divinely human pity and indigna- 
tion alike to remedy the same, one of the 
greatest trials and difficulties is the neces- 
sary combination of patience with labor, the 
due mingling of discretion and zeal. The 
apostolic wrath that would have called down 
the consuming fire from heaven seems none 
too hot. But there can be no doubt that, 
however definite the aim or however severe 
the ultimate standard of the temperance re- 
former, so far at least as the effective action 



142 THE LIQUOK PROBLEM 

of the community within its proper lines of 
duty and right is concerned, he must be a 
more or less patient opportunist. He must 
move by such steps as are for the moment 
practicable, and from the secure basis of a 
recognized good so attained move forward 
to the next attainable better: the proper 
steps and their proper order being questions 
dependent on many locally varying consider- 
ations. 



VI 

A SUMMARY OF INVESTIGATIONS 
CONCERNING SUBSTITUTES FOR 
THE SALOON 

By RAYMOND CALKINS 

EDITOR OF THE VOLUME, "SUBSTIIOTES FOB THE SALOOM" 



A SUMMARY OF INVESTIGATIONS CON- 
CERNING SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SA- 
LOON 

The volume of which this report is a summary 
deals with a single aspect of the liquor pro- 
blem. The study begins with the saloon as 
it exists in our American cities and takes 
account of only one of its characteristics ; its 
contribution to sociability, its importance as 
a factor in the social and recreative life of its 
patrons, and in a larger sense of the com- 
munity as a whole. 

Beginning at this point, the possibility is 
discussed of offsetting and finally overcoming 
the social features of the liquor traffic ; the 
different legislative systems are examined in 
their bearings upon this aspect of the liquor 
problem, and that system is commended 
which it is believed will reduce to a minimum 
the social possibilities of the saloon. The 
remaining and by far the largest portion of 
the volume is devoted to a review of the 
different methods by which the social life of 



146 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

the people may be satisfied apart from the 
saloon. This study is intended to be an in- 
clusive survey of those features of the social 
life of our American cities which rival the 
attractions of the saloon. In each case the 
effort is made to suggest specific and practical 
ways in which social substitutes for the saloon 
may be established, in which social oppor- 
tunity for the people may be provided, which 
shall be wholesome, educative, and contribu- 
tive to a higher form of individual and 
community life. 

In the summary which follows, no attempt 
is made either to suggest the sources, or to 
prove the reliability, of the material which 
forms the basis of the discussion, and the 
story is not told in the order in which it 
appears in the text. The subject is simply 
sketched in outline, and the definite conclu- 
sions reached are in each case presented. 
For the fuller discussion the writer is referred 
to the volume itself. 

A careful study of the saloon as it exists 
to-day in our American cities has revealed 
the fact that it is performing a double 
office, it is satisfying a twofold thirst ; it 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 147 

is meeting the physical craving for intox- 
icating liquor, but it is also meeting the 
thirst for fellowship, for amusement, and for 
recreation. Not only is the saloon performing 
such a service, but it has, or has had, the field 
practically to itself ; in a word, it has had 
handed over to it by the community the 
monopoly of the social life of the majority of 
American wage-earners. 

There are various ways of verifying such 
an assertion. One is to look at the patronage 
of our saloons to-day. Investigation in Boston 
in 1895 revealed the fact that no less than 
two hundred and fifty thousand of Boston's 
inhabitants, or about fifty per cent., daily 
visited the saloons of that city. This was 
supposed to be an exaggerated estimate ; but 
in 1898 a very careful census taken of the 
city of Chicago revealed the fact that nine 
hundred thousand, or over fifty per cent, of 
the population, daily frequented the saloons 
of that city. When one looks at these figures 
closely, bent upon discovering the cause of 
such a hold of the saloon on the community, 
he discovers that the saloon is ministering to 
a much deeper desire than that for alcoholic 
liquors ; nothing less than the satisfaction of 



148 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

the deeper thirst for fellowship and recreation 
can adequately explain so large a patronage 
as this. 

A concrete and thorough examination of 
the saloon itself has verified such a conclu- 
sion. An inquiry which has been carried on 
in cities of all sections of the country, which 
has included every type of saloon in each 
city, has revealed the immense importance of 
the saloon as a social centre. Whatever its 
particular character may be, the saloon as 
such offers to its patrons a social rendezvous ; 
it provides them at a minimum of cost with 
a sure stimulus to sociability, and its atmos- 
phere is one of social freedom. Besides these 
general advantages, the saloon affords cer- 
tain specific and valuable opportunities apart 
from the provision of liquor. Some of these 
features are intended directly for amusement 
and recreation. Tables and cards are fre- 
quently supplied by the proprietor, and some- 
times card rooms. Reading is not so com- 
mon, but the daily papers are by no means 
rare. The saloons are the headquarters for 
athletic information ; they are the centres of 
political activity ; they are the only labor 
bureaus that many workingmen know any- 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 149 

thing about ; they take the place of the so- 
cial club. Many of them provide adjacent 
rooms where labor unions and lodges may 
meet. Nearly all provide a so-called "free 
lunch " where, either without extra cost or 
for a small amount, sufficient food is fur- 
nished to satisfy an ordinary appetite. In 
these and in many other ways, the saloon 
has intrenched itself in the social life of the 
people. It is nicely planned to meet needs 
which are not met in any other way, and the 
social importance of the saloon is practically 
the same whatever may be the legislative 
system under which it exists. Such, in a word, 
is the social side of saloon life as it presents 
itself to-day in all of our American cities.^ 

It goes without saying that the liquor 
dealers are not the proper persons to have 
charge of the social life of our American 
working people, and that the liquor saloon is 
not the proper place for the social instinct to 
find its satisfaction. The liquor dealer is not 
disinterested in the provision which he makes 

^ See Substitutes for the Saloon, pp. 1-24. See also 
"Why Working Men Drink," the Outlook of September 
14, 1901. 



150 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

for the comfort and pleasure of his patrons ; 
he expects to make good for any such ex- 
penditures by his additional receipts, and his 
expectations are rarely disappointed. Intem- 
perate drinking results, and the squandering 
of the week's wage. Gambhng and the social 
evil are closely allied with the perils of drunk- 
enness. The seriousness of the situation is 
evident when it is understood that the saloon 
stands at the same time for the source of the 
city's crime and the centre of much of its 
social hfe. The first part of this statement 
few will question. That the latter part is also 
true will become apparent to any one who 
will carefully examine the saloon as it exists 
and then will search for other existing agen- 
cies which are performing anything like the 
same social service. They are not to be found. 
As yet adequate substitutes for the social 
benefits which thousands of people actually 
derive daily from the saloons have not been 
developed. It is to this problem that the 
experience, the wisdom, and the wealth of 
those interested in social progress must now 
be directed. 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 151 

The negative approach to the problem is 
by the legislative repression of the social side 
of the saloon life. Can a system of liquor 
legislation be devised which shall extirpate 
the social function of the saloons? This 
question may safely be answered in the af- 
firmative. Experimentation in liquor legisla- 
tion has developed a system under which 
liquor selling may be made as prosaic as any 
retail grocery business, and a saloon as de- 
void of social attractions as a dry goods store. 
It would be possible to place upon the statute 
books of all our cities without delay a liquor 
law which would effectually annihilate the 
social features of the saloon. 

The cardinal principle in such legislation is 
the removal of the element of profit from 
the sale of liquor. Here we may say the root 
of the whole matter rests. Once permit men 
to sell liquor for the money they can make 
out of it, and the attractiveness and social 
features of the saloon life are bound to fol- 
low. With an eye to larger profits the dealer 
will seek by every imaginable method to stim- 
ulate his sales. It will not be possible for the 
State by subsequent legislation appreciably 
to diminish the social attractiveness of the 



152 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

saloons when once the fatal error has been 
made of delivering over to men the liquor mo- 
nopoly for money-making purposes. Under 
a low license system the saloons multiply, 
and enter into lively competition with each 
other, and thus increase in attractiveness. If 
the State imposes a high license, then the 
saloon keeper not only has to pay the ex- 
penses of rental and wares and services, but 
in addition he has to pay to the State from 
one thousand to two thousand dollars, and 
he must make his profit beside. The State 
cannot expect its treasury to be reimbursed, 
and at the same time demand that the liquor 
dealers abstain from their methods of in- 
creasing their income. There is no way of 
diminishing the social activity of the saloon 
so long as liquor selling and money getting 
are put together in the same system. 

The retention of the element of profit is the 
objection to existing systems of governmental 
control of the liquor traffic. The South Caro- 
lina dispensary law, for example, substitutes 
pubHc profit for private profit. That by this 
means progress has been made toward the 
solution of the problem there can be no 
doubt. The South Carolina dispensaries are 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 153 

by no means centres of social life ; they have 
been shorn of all attractiveness, having lost 
utterly the atmosphere of conviviaHty. Drink- 
ing is not permitted upon the premises, the 
purchasers are not encouraged to loiter, and 
the store-keeper has no personal interest in 
the amount of his sales. But vast perils still 
remain. The saloon is still in politics; for 
the control of the saloon opposing parties 
still contend at the polls. The amount of 
liquor sold and the consequent accruing rev- 
enue are still a matter of vital concern to the 
State at large, for, according to this system, 
the profits of the liquor traffic are applied 
to the tax rate. If the amount of liquor sold 
be reduced, the tax rate will be raised. In 
the South Carolina system to-day the salaries 
of certain government officials are regulated 
by the amount of liquor sold. This system, 
therefore, though it may be a step in ad- 
vance, is defective, for the element of profit 
still remains. 

The nearest approach to the complete elim- 
ination of the element of profit has been 
made by the Norwegian or Company system, 
which may be said to contain the essence 
of scientific modern liquor legislation. The 



154 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

workings of the system are by no means per- 
fect, the results by no means all that could 
be desired ; but the cardinal principle of the 
removal of profit either for the State or for 
the individual has been incorporated in what 
is to-day without doubt the best existing sys- 
tem of liquor legislation. The saloons are no 
longer attractive places of resort. The bar- 
keeper has no personal interest in his sales ; 
on the contrary, his salary is dependent on his 
observance of the conditions under which 
liquor shall be sold. The State is not inter- 
ested in the amount of the returns, for these 
are not applied to the tax rate, but are applied, 
after the payment of costs, to the establish- 
ment of social resorts, educational enterprises, 
and for purposes of public improvement. 

Such a system is available in our own 
country at any time that enlightened public 
sentiment demands it. Whatever special form 
it shall assume, it will contain the following 
essential features : — 

First. The local option principle will re- 
main in full force ; it will not be obligatory 
upon any town or community to have a dis- 
pensary, the dispensary will exist by vote of 
the separate communities themselves. 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 156 

Second. There will be absolutely no pri- 
vate profit. No inducement will be offered 
to any liquor dealer or bar-keeper to retail 
more liquor rather than less. 

Third. All profits will go to the State, but 
no profits will be applied to the tax rate. 

Fourth. All profits, after payment of ex- 
penses, will be redistributed to communities 
for the purpose of public betterment. 

Fifth. All profits will be distributed irre- 
spective of whether the community has voted 
for or against the dispensary, thus putting no 
premium upon the existence of the dispen- 
sary.^ 

The possibility of legislation to extirpate 
the social attractiveness of the saloons by 
removing the element of profit has thus been 
demonstrated. This, however, is the lighter 
portion of our task ; a more difficult matter 
is to develop the right kind of social centres ; 
to supply the peculiar satisfactions which 
many find to-day within the walls of the 
saloon. It is to this aspect of the problem 
that we must turn. What are the possibil- 

1 Compare, Substitutes for the Saloon^ pp. 25-44. Also 
Rowntree and Sherwell, The Temperance Problem and 
Social Reform^ 9th edition, pp. 509-604. 



156 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

ities for recreation as they exist to-day in our 
American cities ? How may existing condi- 
tions be improved so as to meet the social 
needs of the people and to nullify the social 
attractiveness of the saloon, while it exists, 
and to take its place when by proper legisla- 
tion it has been removed ? 

Social life suggests the club, and club life 
in America has its unique and interesting 
aspects. It is necessary to begin the study 
of men's clubs with the boys, because boys' 
clubs are a distinct feature in the social life 
of American cities, and because only a few 
years are needed under wrong conditions to 
convert any boy into a steady patron of the 
saloon. In all our cities clubs or gangs of 
boys exist in great numbers whose only ob- 
ject is amusement. A good description of 
the life of these groups may be found in Mr. 
Riis's "The Battle With the Slum " and Mr. 
Wood's "The City Wilderness." Without 
meeting place other than the street or an 
abandoned shed, without proper guidance or 
control, it is no wonder that the drift of these 
juvenile clubs is steadily toward the saloon, 
or that the ever-watchful saloon keeper should 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 157 

seek to supply them with certain comforts 
which they lack elsewhere. It is at this point 
that the labor of a corrective influence should 
begin. The effort should be made to redeem 
the life of these groups by providing them 
with a proper meeting place, with wholesome 
interests, and with genuine ideals. The full 
story of what has already been accomplished 
at this point cannot be told here. Only cer- 
tain conclusions can be enumerated. For one 
thing, it has been determined that this work 
can best be done not by the municipality, 
but by individual or private philanthropic 
enterprise. The formation and guidance of 
these clubs by the municipality carries with 
it too much danger of political control. At 
one point, however, the cooperation of the 
municipality is not only desirable, but indis- 
pensable. The city buildings and grounds 
must be thrown open for the use of these 
clubs. School buildings, school yards, public 
parks, public playgrounds, are necessary if 
the club life of the boys in our American 
cities is to be developed in right directions. 
Where these have been placed at the disposal 
of private individuals and associations work- 
ing among boys, the most encouraging re- 



158 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

suits have been achieved. The importance of 
handicraft, manual training, sloyd, and car- 
pentry as factors in moral development has 
also been demonstrated. To-day these are 
widely employed as the best means of secur- 
ing the attention and developing the latent 
moral interest in boys of all ages and con- 
ditions. A third point is the necessity not 
only for further open spaces upon which the 
play instinct may find expression without the 
interruption of the street and the interference 
of the police, but also for instruction in the 
right forms of exercises and in the develop- 
ment of the highest forms of group life. 
Noteworthy in this direction have been the 
results achieved by the Outdoor Recreation 
League in New York and by the Massachu- 
setts Civic League, whose reports are indis- 
pensable to all who are interested in this form 
of enterprise. It may safely be said that the 
conditions for the right sort of work among 
the boys of our cities have been wrought out, 
and that no department of modern social 
work presents to-day so many encouraging 
aspects. 

Besides the boys' clubs, there are in every 
city large numbers of self-formed young 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 159 

men's clubs. These bear various names, such 
as athletic clubs, literary clubs, social clubs, 
but their object is generally the same, — to 
provide a social rendezvous for their members 
and some form, however crude, of social life. 
These clubs meet in rooms for which a mod- 
est rental is paid. To these rooms the mem- 
bers come each evening to play cards, to 
smoke, and to have a good time. The num- 
ber of such clubs is very large, probably at 
least one club for every one hundred young 
men in the poorer sections of any city. As 
might be expected, the morale of these clubs 
is not high, and their existence is often very 
precarious. In many of them intoxication is 
not uncommon ; and few, if any, have a posi- 
tive influence for good upon the members. 
Yet aside from the saloon, — and the distance 
between the two is never large, and has a 
constant tendency to diminish, — these clubs 
provide the only means of recreation which 
many of the young men of our cities know. 

The opportunity here presented is very 
inviting and equally difficult. It is much 
harder to influence the young men's clubs 
than the boys' clubs. Those who have ac- 
complished the most in this direction are 



160 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

undoubtedly the workers in the settlements. 
Connected with almost any settlement may 
be found groups of young men, many of 
whom have grown up within the settlement 
influence. By means of guilds or series of 
clubs their connection with the settlement is 
maintained and the life of the clubs is largely 
transformed. The great necessity for this 
important work is a suitable meeting place ; 
especially a hall for dancing and other social 
entertainments. The absence of such rooms 
has more than once caused the disintegration 
of otherwise flourishing clubs. The fact is 
that there are for rental very few rooms and 
halls except those having a saloon connection 
or a saloon proprietor. The provision of such 
clubrooms and halls might well be made by 
the municipality. It would be a new, but by 
no means unwarranted, use to make of pub- 
lic funds. Municipal clubhouses would nearly 
pay for themselves directly out of the rental 
received, and would more than pay for them- 
selves indirectly from the increase of good 
order and the decreased influence of the sa- 
loon. Such clubhouses are also a legitimate 
form of what has come to be known as " busi- 
ness philanthropy." In New York the Social 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 161 

Hall Association inaugurated by the Nurses' 
Settlement, and the new clubhouse to be 
connected with the Alfred Corning Clark 
Neighborhood House on Rivington Street, 
and to be known as the Edward Clark Club, 
are practical illustrations of this important 
form of philanthropy. It is expected, at least 
in the former case, that the new clubhouse 
will be self-supporting and will pay an interest 
on the capital invested. 

The effort to reach the social life of the 
young men of our cities is not, nor should 
it be, confined to the right development of 
clubs already existing. Many clubs have 
been formed, and clubhouses have been 
erected, for the benefit of young men by 
private philanthropy, and the running ex- 
penses, which have far exceeded the receipts 
for membership, have been met by an endow- 
ment or annual grant. There is no better 
illustration of a club of this type than the 
well-known Hollywood Inn, which affords a 
temporary home and many otherwise unat- 
tainable comforts to upwards of five hundred 
men of Yonkers, New York. Similar enter- 
prises are the Lighthouse, of Philadelphia, 
Salem Fraternity, and, in a more educational 



162 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

way, the Prospect Union of Cambridgf, and 
the clubs connected with many large inanu- 
facturing establishments in the country to- 
day. These all go to prove that great good 
can be accomplished where men and women 
give of their wealth to provide social oppor- 
tunity for the working people ; it must al- 
ways, however, be borne in mind that such 
clubs cannot hope to become self-supporting 
institutions. 

Of great importance also is the work ac* 
complished in our cities by the Young Men's 
Christian Association, which is the largest 
and wealthiest institution in the country de- 
voting itself exclusively to work among young 
men. Its importance in the present discussion 
cannot be denied. Its constituency, it is true, 
is not as a rule of the class to which the saloon 
makes its strongest appeal. Its programme 
includes the religious aim and the conducting 
of religious exercises according to Protestant 
modes of worship, and its constitution does 
not permit all to have equal controlling rights. 
On the other hand, the aim of the association 
is to reach all grades of young men in our 
cities; its methods are more and more calcu- 
lated to meet their needs; its educational. 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 163 

social, and athletic privileges are open to all 
without distinction, and its attractive work 
bears directly upon the saloon problem. Its 
managers are seeking to make it an effective 
factor in solving the social problem of the 
young men in our cities ; and within its own 
field, which appears to be constantly widen- 
ing, it is accomplishing its aim. 

If we pass to the adult social life of the 
married men among American wage-earners 
we are met at once with a singular phenome- 
non. As a rule these have no social clubs 
and no visible opportunity for recreation out- 
side of the home and family life. When the 
young man marries he drops out of his club 
and enters no other organization of a purely 
social sort. The club of the married man is 
either the union or the lodge, and neither of 
these is primarily a social organization. It is 
impossible to analyze the life of the union 
or of the lodge at this point. Such an anal- 
ysis, however, has conclusively shown that, 
as at present conducted, neither the union 
nor the lodge, as a rule, is an important fac- 
tor in the social life of American wage-earn- 
ers. The meetings of both are infrequent, 



164 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

not over once in a fortnight on an average. 
The union is chiefly concerned with the 
serious problems of wage and hours of labor, 
the label, the strike, and the boycott. Of the 
nearly six hundred fraternal organizations, 
by far the larger number exist chiefly for 
insurance and financial benefit, and not for 
social purposes. The oldest and largest of 
the lodges do the most in promoting the 
social life of their members, an example which 
the younger orders would do well to follow. 
No greater single advance could be made 
toward the solution of the social problem in 
America than for unions and lodofes ahke to 
include the social aim in the programme of 
their activities. Permauent rooms, open every 
evening with some provision for amusement, 
would go far towards offsetting the attrac- 
tiveness of the saloon. Again, however, we 
are confronted with the need of suitable 
club-rooms. Again we are reminded that 
little progress in any branch of recreative 
reform can be made until club-rooms at a 
moderate rental are available, free from the 
associations and control of the saloons. 

The surprising thing, however, is to dis- 
cover the absence of permanent social clubs 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 165 

among married American wage-earners. In 
England the case is different. There the 
Workingmen's Club and Institute Union 
has an enrollment of hundreds of different 
clubs and thousands of married workingmen. 
Begun as a philanthropic and temperance 
organization, it became independent and self- 
supporting in 1884. Since then in the control 
of workingmen, these clubs have provided 
social enjoyment for their members, have 
developed certain educational features, and, 
while not teetotal clubs, have undoubtedly 
been effective competitors of the public 
houses. There seems to be no real reason 
why such clubs should not be successful in 
our American cities. A company of men or 
women interested in social progress, with 
means at their disposal, might engage the 
services of a skilled secretary who would 
proceed to form such clubs and to unite 
them by some central board of control. A 
democratic management, the absence of the 
taint of patronage, the prominence of the 
recreative idea, and a judicious settlement 
of the question of the furnishing of intoxi- 
cating liquors would be the essential condi- 
tions of the success of such a movement. 



166 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

Thus far we have discussed certain aspects 
of the social life of our American cities from 
within. Approaching the subject from with- 
out, we discover various opportunities for so- 
cial recreation of a general nature. 

Of indoor amusements, apart from those 
already discussed, we may mention the bil- 
liard room, the social pubhc halls, and the 
theatre. The billiard room, as it is generally 
operated, is more of a saloon annex than a 
saloon substitute. Where it is not controlled 
by the saloon-keeper or connected with the 
saloon, it is placed as near as possible to it, 
and is a stepping-stone to the saloon to the 
youth who has not already contracted the 
drink-habit. The situation certainly suggests 
the possibility of rescuing these places of 
legitimate entertainment from the associa- 
tions which tend to degrade them, and by 
making them helpful instead of harmful 
centres of recreation. Under competent man- 
agement they would certainly be self-support- 
ing- 

In every large city, especially in the tene- 
ment districts, there are public halls which 
serve as centres for the social life of the 
neighborhood, where dances, weddings, and 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 167 

family and neighborhood celebrations take 
place. The social value of these halls is 
great, affording, as they do, one of a very 
few places of recreation where men and wo- 
men can meet upon a common social basis. 
Nearly all of these halls are, however, owned 
or operated by liquor dealers, and a bar is 
commonly to be found. At the larger dances 
and public balls, intoxication is very com- 
mon. All this emphasizes once more the 
need of respectable, quiet, and well-ventilated 
halls where liquor is not served, as essential 
to the solution of the social problem. 

A very careful study has been made of the 
theatre in its influence upon the social life 
of the people. In general, it must be said 
that its influence falls far below what it 
might and ought to be, because the best plays 
are beyond the financial reach of the people 
who most need them. The melodrama, which 
used to be offered at low rates, has largely 
given way in our day to vaudeville perform- 
ances which are by no means so wholesome 
in their effect. In cheap vaudeville theatres 
the tendency is constantly downward, and 
these are precisely the theatres most fre- 
quented by those who need a higher and 



168 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

better form of recreation. The theatre — 
that is as it exists to-day — is an educational 
or helpful centre of amusement for only the 
merest fraction of the wage-earners of our 
great cities. And it will never become, in the 
best sense, "a people's theatre" so long as 
it is controlled by syndicates having an eye 
solely to profits. If the interests which at 
present operate the theatres of the country 
cannot take a proper view of their opportu- 
nity, then the work must be taken up either 
as a philanthropic or as a municipal enter- 
prise. We have the beginnings of such a 
municipal theatre in France. It ought not 
to be long before it is realized in our own 
cities, where there is desperate need of whole- 
some dramatic entertainment at rates within 
reach of the wage-earners. 

Outdoor amusements compete only indi- 
rectly, perhaps, with the saloon ; yet their 
general influence is large in lifting the peo- 
ple, for at least a portion of the year, above 
the saloon level. Of the need of playgrounds 
for the children mention has abeady been 
made. The open spaces and small parks in 
aur large cities are of the utmost importance 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 169 

also in furnishing the laboring people "with 
an attractive meeting place, and with the 
social opportunity which the saloon affords. 
The large parks at a distance from the poor 
resident sections never take the place of these 
neighborhood parks, which, however small, 
are of incalculable service. The large parks 
in many American cities are too inaccessible, 
and the rate of transportation is too high to 
make them a great benefit for the poor peo- 
ple. A public park, to be of the greatest 
value to the working people, must not be in- 
accessible from any part of the city, must be 
reached by a five-cent fare, and must offer 
amusements that attract and divert. The 
growing custom of street-railway corpora- 
tions to own and operate public amusement 
parks is commendable where these are free 
from objectionable amusements. The open- 
air vaudeville shows, however, are not always 
above reproach, and where liquor is freely 
sold the results are not good. 

The municipality is able to contribute to 
the solution of the social problem in other 
ways which may be conveniently mentioned 
here. The athletic interest affords a field 
for the wise use of municipal funds. The 



170 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

public gymnasium is a little known institution 
in our American cities, yet where it exists 
its influence for good has been immediately 
felt. Boston operates several municipal gym- 
nasiums, the operation and maintenance of 
which have cost only moderate sums, while 
the benefits in increased healthfulness and 
sobriety have been marked. A substantial, 
roomy gymnasium can be erected and 
equipped for $20,000. It would be difficult 
to suggest a more profitable investment of a 
city's funds. 

Outdoor gymnasiums are conducted by the 
municipality in Boston, in New York, and 
elsewhere, with unvarying success from the 
point of view of patronage, economy, and 
visible results in the decrease in lawlessness 
and intoxication. It is much to be wished that 
these might be estabhshed in every munici- 
pality. The same is to be said of the public 
baths. These are always crowded wholly be- 
yond their capacity, and exert the most whole- 
some influence. A bath costing $20,000 will 
accommodate 800 daily, and will do much to 
promote a city's health and morality. No 
municipality will really have discharged its 
duty until it brings within the reach of all, 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 171 

in winter as well as in summer, facilities for 
securing the physical cleanliness that bears 
such close relationship to social and moral 
well-being. 

The efPort to compete with the saloon upon 
the basis of food and drink presents a very 
difficult problem. The most that can be said 
of temperance drinking places is that they 
satisfy the normal thirst without compelling 
one to enter a saloon for that purpose. On 
the ground of satisfying the natural craving 
for drink, these temperance places are exerting 
a large influence. Unhappily, however, where 
the morbid appetite for liquor begins, this 
competition ceases, and the superior attraction 
of the alcoholic drink can be met only by the 
provision of other attractions of such a kind 
and variety that they will overcome the single 
appeal to appetite. Such, in a word, is the 
philosophy underlying the coffee house, the 
tea saloon, the temperance tavern, and all 
similar institutions. As against the bar with 
its beer and whiskey there is a bar with its 
temperance drinks, and, in addition, a well- 
stocked reading-room, a billiard room, a bowl- 
ing alley, and perhaps good lodging and 



172 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

wholesome food, — resources that can satisfy 
not only the normal thirst, but the normal 
desire for recreation and sociability as well. 
Where these are provided, and all religious 
and charitable ideas are excluded, temperance 
drinking places may expect a fairly good 
patronage, and may under favorable condi- 
tions pay the running expenses. They cannot 
expect, however, to realize any profit on the 
capital invested. 

Another plan has been suggested. It has 
been proposed that temperance saloons recog- 
nize the demand for alcoholic stimulant as 
legitimate, and provide good beer and light 
wines to be sold with discretion and with no 
attempt to make a profit. This plan is already 
in operation in England. The Bishop of 
Chester and other influential persons organ- 
ized in 1897 the People's Restaurant House 
Association, the aim of which is to establish 
canteens and refreshment houses at large 
public works where liquor shall be distributed 
under right conditions. These conditions are 
held to be as follows : the manager to be paid 
a fixed salary, and to be allowed no profit 
on the sale of alcoholic drinks; but to be 
allowed a profit on all food and non-alcoholic 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 173 

drinks which are prominently displayed and 
promptly served ; and great care to be taken 
to secure the pure quality of the liquor sold. 
This association, which has done good work 
in England on what we may well believe to 
be right principles, has not been systemati- 
cally imitated in America. Yet it may be said 
to present a practicable plan for proceeding 
at once to better the conditions under which 
intoxicants are sold without waiting for fur- 
ther legislation. 

Lunch rooms and restaurants, of which so 
many are to be found in all our cities, are 
not in any real sense competitors of the saloon 
free lunch for the reason that, as a rule, the 
restaurant keeper, in order to make a living, 
is obliged to place such a price upon the food 
or to serve it under conditions so unattrac- 
tive as to leave the free lunch practically un- 
rivaled. It is only as the element of profit is 
eliminated from the retailing of food that it 
can be served in sufficient quantities, for a 
low enough price, or with sufficient attrac- 
tions, to overcome the superior advantages 
already held out by the saloon. In this way 
eating places may become rivals of the saloon 
as food centres and social centres as well. 



174 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

This fact is itself a great encouragement, and 
ought to stimulate without any delay activity 
in this branch of temperance work. It will 
fall to churches, temperance organizations, 
and private philanthropies that are not look- 
ing for a return on capital invested, to form 
lunch-room or coffee-house associations, and 
to plant lunch rooms or restaurants in local- 
ities where saloons are abundant and where 
the saloon free lunch is drawing all the 
trade. Nothing that manufacturers have done 
for their employees can show better results 
than the provision by the company of good 
meals at low prices. By this simple means 
alone the comfort and morals of large num- 
bers of men have been noticeably improved, 
and often neighboring saloons have been 
driven out of business. 

In conclusion, two other methods of rival- 
ing the influence of the saloon must be men- 
tioned. They are the most fundamental of 
all. The first is the method of improving 
the outer conditions and the inner life of the 
home. The second is the education and moral 
enlightenment of the individual. 

The natural and rightful competitor of the 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 175 

saloon is the home. But before home life 
begins, houses should be provided with at 
least the elementary conditions of sanitation, 
privacy, air, and space. Yet these are denied 
to thousands of working people in our cities, 
who seek in a saloon what they should find 
in the home. Sanitary reform is the founda- 
tion of any effort to provide suitable homes 
for the working people. Experience has con- 
clusively shown that this cannot be surely 
and expeditiously brought about by the regu- 
larly constituted authorities alone. The co- 
operation of public-spirited citizens, sanitary 
aid societies, and other associations is very 
desirable. It has also been definitely deter- 
mined that whenever the housing problem 
becomes acute, either the regular or specially 
appointed officers must have the authority to 
expropriate evidently unwholesome buildings, 
to evict tenants, and to prosecute offenders. 
Until such a statute has been enacted httle 
real progress can be made. Ordinances seek- 
ing to regulate the erection of new tenement 
buildings will have regard to light, air, fire- 
escapes, sanitary and bath conveniences, and 
to the prevention of overcrowding. There 
is to-day no excuse whatever for the erection 



176 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

of buildings in any American city violating 
these fundamental conditions. But the chief 
encouragement in this important branch of 
reform comes from the fact that improved 
housing pays not only in the results accom- 
plished, but in dollars and cents. An analysis 
of the economic experience of all companies 
engaged in providing good housing facilities 
for the poor — such, for example, as the City 
and Suburban Homes Company of New 
York — has demonstrated that "about four 
per cent, and a safe reserve can be earned on 
model tenement buildings anywhere charging 
customary rents, provided the total cost of 
the completed property does not exceed five 
hundred dollars per room." Such, then, is 
the encouraging experience in this branch of 
social economics. It is to be remembered also 
that the evident effect of the erection of im- 
proved dwellings is to raise the standard of 
tenement erection by those who are not ani- 
mated by any philanthropic motive.^ 

Similarly encouraging, although here the 
amount of evidence is not so large, are the 
results of recent experiments to establish 

1 " Substitutes for the Saloon,'* pp. 268-288, Municipal 
Affairs Magazine^ March, 1899. 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 177 

hotels for unmarried workingmen at prices 
within reach of the poorest. The experience 
of Hke enterprises in England has been con- 
firmed, that such hotels can accomplish an 
inestimable social service, and, in addition, 
be made to pay all expenses and to yield a 
comfortable income on the money invested. 

Home life depends, of course, even more 
upon the mental and spiritual resources of 
those who inhabit the home than upon the 
external conditions of the home itself. It is 
clear that the housing of the people does not 
solve the problem of home life ; yet, in so far 
as externals are favorable, they do help to 
raise the standard of living, and to increase 
the self-respect of the home-makers. The 
unselfish love of that which is holy, the 
steadfastness of purpose which holds one 
close to the fulfillment of his ideal, and the 
willing sacrifice of all that stands in the way 
of its realization, — these are the elements 
of a home wherever that home may be. Fun- 
damental and personal as these essentially 
are, it is by no means in vain that one strives 
to reach and strengthen them. All that is 
done to refine, to educate, and to cultivate 
the ideals reacts upon the character, and 



178 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

fulfills its highest aim when the man thus 
reinforced takes the product of his own 
enlightenment into his home. The same re- 
finement due the man is vastly more an ob- 
ligation to the woman, who is the real maker 
of the home. It is her personality that cre- 
ates the home atmosphere, and upon her 
strength of character depends very largely 
the influence and the power of the home. 

Thus the real solution of the liquor pro- 
blem from this, as from every other point of 
view, is seen to rest finally in the moral 
equipment of the individual. Those forces 
that make for the development of personality 
are in the last analysis the forces that are 
doinof the most to overcome the evils of the 
liquor traf&c. It is at this point, rather than 
in the development of institutional activity, 
— although this is by no means unimpor- 
tant, — that the Church can render her most 
effective service. It is here that the relation 
of public school education to public morality 
is clearly visible. And it has become apparent 
that a system which in spite of its excellence 
retains only six per cent, of the total popula- 
tion of the United States within its schools 
after the age of fourteen years is not doing 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 179 

what it should to develop those inner re- 
sources o£ mind and heart which alone can 
create and satisfy desires far above the ap- 
peals of appetite. To make good these defi- 
ciencies the municipal night schools, public 
lecture courses, free public libraries, univer- 
sity extension societies, educational classes 
connected with the Young Men's Christian 
Association, and such popular educational 
institutions as Cooper Union in New York, 
have been established. Free reading-rooms 
in crowded districts have met with large suc- 
cess. Where these are provided with well- 
lighted front entrances, comfortable seats, 
tables supplied with reading matter and the 
daily papers, they attract large numbers. 
Such reading-rooms are amazingly rare, yet 
the cost of maintenance is slight, and their 
popularity and usefulness are unquestionable. 
Night schools are a most important part 
of this supplemental system of education, and 
where the curriculum is made broad enough 
to bear directly on the occupations of the 
youthful wage-earners, and where the teacher 
comes fresh to the work, their effectiveness 
is very great. The free lecture courses pro- 
vided by the Board of Education in New 



180 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

York and elsewhere, as well as by the vari- 
ous university extension societies, provide 
intellectual and educational stimulus to hun- 
dreds of thousands of people. These lectures 
have been most effective where care has been 
taken to secure the very best lecturers, and 
to make the work in each centre continuous. 
Such work cannot in the nature of the case 
be self-supporting, but it is one of the most 
judicious of the civic investments of the 
taxpayer. 

Public libraries in order to do their best 
work must be free, must make it easy for the 
people to get their register cards, and must 
plan to facilitate the use of books. This can 
best be accomplished by working in coopera- 
tion with other educational centres, by branch 
and traveling libraries, and by permitting free 
access to at least a considerable number of 
books, so that the sight of the books may 
stimulate circulation. In fact, the ideal of 
all popular educational enterprises is to reach 
the largest number, and to supply as con- 
cretely as possible the specific needs of the 
different elements of the city's population, 
in the belief that " a man needs knowledge, 
not as a means of livelihood, but as a means 



SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON 181 

of life ; " that the future of the saloon de- 
pends on public sentiment and on economic 
conditions that will improve only as public 
education advances and enters more and 
more deeply into the life of the people. 

Of even greater educational value is the 
silent but pervading work being carried on 
by the little groups of settlement workers in 
nearly all of our American cities. Such work 
is too personal to be describable in outer 
terms. But if this chapter of social reform 
were to be adequately presented, it would be 
felt by every one to be among the most fun- 
damental of all attempts to meet the issues 
growing out of the social allurements of the 
saloon. 

The volume of which this report is an ab- 
stract has been written to little purpose if it 
has not shown, on the one hand, the danger 
of leaving the saloon to keep its present 
strategic position in the social life of the 
American people, and, upon the other hand, 
the present possibility, both by the negative 
method of repressive legislation and by the 
positive method of developing wholesome 
recreative agencies, of satisfying the legiti- 



182 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 

mate demand for sociability and amusements 
in higher and better ways. If these two 
points have been clearly demonstrated, the 
ultimate solution of the liquor problem may 
not be as far distant as we have sometimes 
been tempted to believe. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^ 

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